THE COUNTRY’S Marathon Queen Mary Joy Tabal is scheduled to leave for Japan next week to further hone her skills in preparation for the Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August.
Tabal’s trainer John Philip Dueñas, who is now in Manila to finalize his ward’s schedule of training abroad, told Cebu Daily News that the Olympic-bound Cebuana will be leaving for Japan either Sunday or Monday.
Once in Japan, the 26-year-old Barangay Guba, Cebu City-native Tabal will be reunited with her Japanese trainer, veteran marathoner Akio Usami, who played a huge role in improving her performance in the Boston Marathon and in the Scotia Bank Ottawa Marathon in Canada, where she finally qualified for the Olympic women’s marathon.
Tabal will spend a month in Japan and will head straight to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics.
In her past training in Japan, Tabal said that she learned a lot from Usami such as using her running form efficiently to economize her endurance in a long distance run.
Her training in Japan will be funded by the MotorAce-Kawasaki Racing Team, which also funded her stint in Canada.