Tabal gets back national team slot

2017 Philippine Sportswriters Association Awards Night. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Rio de Janeiro Olympian Mary Joy Tabal will wear the national colors in the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games, after all.

The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) reinstated Tabal to the national team Thursday after the champion marathoner from Cebu declared her desire to race for the country.

Patafa president Philip Ella Juico, who was initially criticized for counting out the four-time Milo Marathon champ, confirmed that Tabal had been included in the final lineup for the KL Games on Aug. 19 to 30.

Tabal has committed to comply with all of Patafa’s rules and regulations with five-time SEA Games steeplechase champion Rene Herrera as her coach.

Tabal is currently training in Tuscany, Italy under the guidance of his personal coach John Philip Duenas and will immediately report to Patafa upon her arrival on Aug. 9. The 27-year-old from Guba, Cebu City recently won the Scotiabank Ottawa Half Marathon in Canada.

“After she agreed to comply with the rules, the Patafa grants the request of Ms Tabal to be reinstated, for the third time, to the Philippine athletics team to the SEA Games,’’ said Juico.

Tabal got a silver medal in the 2015 Singapore SEAG and finished the full marathon in the Rio Olympics last year despite the searing heat of the midday sun.

Juico said Tabal is allowed to bring her own technical staff to the SEA Games in accordance with the rules and regulations of the SEA Games organizing committee and the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Meanwhile, triple jump specialist Mark Harry Diones recorded a 16.31-meter leap to clinch gold in the Thailand Open Track and Field Championships being held at Thammasat University Sports Complex in Bangkok.

A Thai took silver while another Filipino, Ronnie Malipag, bagged bronze with a 15.85m effort.