THE experience of hitting the Olympic qualifying standard in the 2016 Scotia Bank Marathon in Ottawa two weekends ago was a priceless one.
Long distance runner Mary Joy Tabal said this as she gets ready to return home to Cebu City and await her fate.
“Mixed feelings ako, excited na may halong kaba. Pero nu’ng pagka-finish ko, I felt like I was the happiest runner na sumali sa Ottawa, priceless moment ko ‘yun, parang nabuo na ako bilang isang marathoner,” said the 26-year-old Tabal.
Tabal said she has sets her sights on making it to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, knowing that it was not going to be easy.
“As I expected sa mga roads na pinagdadaanan ko, there were a lot of challenges. It’s never been that easy for me to be here and now for Rio, I will be expecting that it’s going to be harder and tougher for me. I just needed to be focused and positive,” added Tabal.
Her clocking of two hours, 43 minutes and 31 seconds, surpassed the national record which Jhoann Banayag set in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games at 2:44.2. More importantly, it allowed her to beat the Olympic standard of 2:45.
Because Tabal was training on her own after she resigned from the national team last December, her efforts surprised the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association.
PATAFA officials, led by its president Philip Ella Juico, said Tabal will need to seek reinstatement with the national team to be able to make it the Olympiad.
Romasanta, following a POC executive board meeting last Friday, said that Tabal’s status has somehow put long jumper Marestella Torres-Sunang’s status in jeopardy after the latter was given an universality slot earlier. Torres-Sunang’s slot was given her on the premise that no one other female athlete will qualify for the Olympics.
Because of this, POC secretary-general Steve Hontiveros has been assigned to appeal the case of Torres-Sunang before the Rio sports entries committee.
He added that should Tabal make the cut, the POC wants Torres-Sunang to keep her place in the national delegation.