Tabal during her Olympic stint in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last August.
Tabal in Olympics, IronMan Asia-Pacific C’ships in Cebu highlight endurance sports in 2016
The past year was one for the record books for Cebu in terms of endurance sport.
Topping the list of historic moments was Mary Joy Tabal’s entry to the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil last August.
Tabal, the 27-year-old multi-titled runner from Barangay Guba in Cebu City, became the first Filipina to compete in women’s marathon of the prestigious quadrennial multi-sporting event.
Although she just finished 124th overall, her inclusion in the Olympic roster was still one worth remembering, especially since the road to Rio wasn’t an easy one for the petite runner.
After winning her third straight National Milo Marathon in December 2015, Tabal earned a shot at an Olympic qualifying race in the Boston Marathon. She trained for two months in Japan under Japanese Olympian Akio Usami but failed in her first shot in April.
Determined and confident she can make it to the Summer Games, she once again tried a month after in the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon in Canada. There, she clocked 2:43.31 to surpass the Olympic qualifying time of 2:45.
Although she beat the qualifying mark, a stint in Rio was still uncertain as she had to be reinstated to the national team via the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa), which she left in 2015 following a dispute over securing sponsors.
Tabal right after making the Olympic qualifying time during the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon in Canada.
With the Olympics fast approaching, Tabal had to divide her time between training for Rio and meeting with Patafa to iron out the kinks regarding her possible stint in Rio. With the help of her corporate backer MotorAce Philippines, Tabal and Patafa came to terms that led to her inclusion to the national athletics team for the Olympics.
Aside from her historic Olympics stint, Tabal also had a good run in local races this year.
She opened 2016 with 21-kilometer titles in the Hong Kong Standard Chartered Marathon and the Condura Skyway race. She also won another 21k race in the Adachi Goshikizakura Half Marathon, where she clocked 1:18.44, a new 21k personal best and a 21k Philippine record.
Tabal, a former Southwestern University ace, capped her year by solidifying her “Marathon Queen” status by winning a fourth straight National Milo Marathon crown. The Southeast Asian Games silver medalist did it in style as she broke her own record by posting a time of 2:47:49.
The win again gave Tabal an all-expense paid trip to Canada to compete in the Ottawa Marathon, the same race she used to qualify for the Olympics.
Triathlon
Triathlon also had its share of highlights when Cebu welcomed 3,000 triathletes from 50 countries for the Cobra IronMan 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships in August.
Cebu has been home to the Philippine championships of the IronMan race for the past five years but it was the first time that the Asia-Pacific Championships was held here.
Australian Tim Reed and Karoline Steffens dominated the pro category that featured around 30 of the best professional triathletes in the world.
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