Dueñas, Tabal dominate Milo Marathon Cebu leg

CEBU CITY—Different goals, same results.

John Philip Dueñas merely wanted to set a personal record while his ward, Mary Joy Tabal, eyed a fourth straight appearance in the National Finals. Both emerged winners yesterday in the 21K Cebu elimination leg of the 37th Milo Marathon here.

Dueñas topped the men’s race in one hour, 15 minutes and 24 seconds—24 ticks slower than his target time—and like Tabal bagged P10,000 plus a ticket to the finals slated Dec. 8 at Mall of Asia grounds in Pasay.

Bonifacio Monjas placed second in 1:16:32 and Argie Tillor third (1:19:57) in the 24,067-strong men’s race.

Tabal kept her Cebu title with a time of 1:24:50. It was her third regional title here in the last four years, after first winning in 2010.

In the National Finals, she placed third in 2010 and 2011 and fourth last year. She was also last year’s winner in the local 42K category.

Christy Sevilleno was a far second in 1:40:58 while Sandra Soliano was third in 1:43:21.

Dueñas, a triathlete who finished third in the Ironman 70.3 Philippines last month, started coaching Tabal in 2009.

“I wasn’t really thinking of winning,” said the 26-year-old Dueñas in Filipino. “I was more focused on how Mary Joy would perform.”

Dueñas, who pulled away from his pursuers starting at the 7 km mark, will be seeing action in his sixth Milo Finals where he has not entered the top 10 in five previous appearances.

“After the starting gun, I never saw anybody close behind me,” Tabal said.

Dueñas and Tabal, who both earned Master degrees in Public Administration from Southwestern University, will also seek the two slots dangled for the 2014 Paris Marathon.

“We are very proud to report that we’ve broken another record this year by surpassing last year’s more than 21,000 head count in Cebu,” said Andrew Neri, Milo Sports Executive.
With the support of the Department of Education, Milo has given a total of 29,200 shoes to public school students through its Help Give Shoes advocacy. Yesterday, 500 pairs of running shoes were distributed to the Marigondon National High School, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. Memorial National HS, San Nicolas Elementary School, Simeon Ayuda ES and Pusok ES.

OTHER WINNERS: 10K— (Men’s) Isaac Samat (33:57), Prince Joey Lee (34:01), John Daryl Manos (34:14); (Women’s) Mary Jane Beboso (44:49), Jhean Andrin (47:30), Myleen Conde (55:02) ; 5K—(Men’s) John Cliff Debulosan (19:56), Michael Largo (16:53), Ariel Saballa (17:23); (Women’s) Lovely Fe Andrin (19:56), Riza Bausin (20:53), Lynle Cardenas (21:38); 3K—(Men’s) Dave Anthoun Lungcob (11:50), Anthony Cosgrave (11:54), Jovenel Oyao (12:16); (Women’s) Cherry Andrin (11:22), Mary Joy Loberanis (11:59), Sarale Cuizon (13:10).