Tabal pleads with Patafa to reconsider: I did nothing wrong

Mary Joy Tabal. Photo from Cebu Daily New

CEBU CITY—Mary Joy Tabal woke up Saturday afternoon to news she had been cut from the national team despite trying to prove her worth to officials.

On Tuesday, she addressed the media here after Philippine Track and Field Association president Philip Juico said he did not want the country’s top female marathoner in the national team.

“I did nothing wrong,” Tabal said, struggling to hold back tears less than 24-hours after being cut from the national team to the Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.

“Ayaw namin sayo. Tapos. (We don’t want you. That’s all),” Juico told Manila journalists in a press conference Monday.

Tabal’s press conference was more pleading than combative: “I just want to bring honor to the country.”

Tabal is the first Filipino woman to ever compete in Olympic marathon when she joined the race in last year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics. But even then, her stint hung on the balance as Patafa threatened to withhold her name from the official roster over differences with her team.

Tabal arrived from a 26-hour flight from Canada on Monday night and was supposed to celebrate her triumph in the May 29 Scotia Bank Ottawa Marathon, where she won the 21-km race and broke the national record in the process.

Juico accused Tabal of violating the NSA’s rules, citing the Cebuana’s insistence on training here and not in Manila like the other national athletes as well as Tabal’s corporate sponsors and her participation in international races without permission from Patafa.

But the 28-year-old Tabal said she thought these issues were already ironed out when her team and the Patafa met last year.

“I don’t have a single idea on how I broke Patafa’s rules and regulations,” she said. “Right now I am planning to send another reinstatement letter to them with the hopes of representing the country.”

Juico told Cebu Daily News over the phone Tuesday that there is still hope for Tabal.

“She wants to come back, she is welcome,” said Juico. “She just has to respect and follow Patafa’s standards, rules and regulations and values and then we can talk.” —GLENDALE ROSAL/CEBU DAILY NEWS