{"id":112320,"date":"2017-08-16T03:20:59","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T07:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=112320"},"modified":"2017-08-16T03:20:59","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T07:20:59","slug":"high-level-training-abroad-boosts-tabals-confidence-in-sea-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/16\/high-level-training-abroad-boosts-tabals-confidence-in-sea-games\/","title":{"rendered":"High-level training abroad boosts Tabal’s confidence in SEA Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Filipino<\/a>
Filipino ace marathoner Mary Joy Tabal (Photo by Primo Agatep via PNA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— \u00a0Filipino ace marathoner Mary Joy Reyes Tabal’s confidence in competing at the upcoming 29th<\/sup>\u00a0Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was boosted with her training abroad side-by-side world-class runners and sustained government support.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Tabal, who hails from Barangay Guba, Cebu City, is the first Filipino marathoner to qualify in the Olympics with a time of 2:43:29 in the 2016 Scotiabank Ottawa\u00a0Marathon.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m much better prepared this time,” Tabal said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy training in Italy helped me a lot, especially mentally,\u201d said Tabal, who is aiming for the elusive gold in the lung-busting 42.195 kilometer marathon event.<\/p>\n

Tabal, together with 37 other members of the Philippine track and field team, were given a special and upbeat send-off on Tuesday. The event was organized by Philippine Track and Field (PATAFA), headed by Philip Ella Juico, and backed by corporate supporters.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0marathon will be the first event in athletics and is set on August 19 at 6:15 a.m. for the women\u2019s event. The gun start for men is set 15 minutes earlier, at 6:00 a.m.<\/p>\n

Tabal settled for the silver (3:04:39) in the 2015 edition of the regional biennial meet held in Singapore. Her time was over 1:14 minutes against gold medalist Natthaya Thanaronnawat of Thailand, who clocked 3:03:25.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe studied the course and I\u2019ve prepared for it,\u201d said Tabal, as she noted that the course has five loops and mostly flat surface. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great advantage,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m aiming for the gold and just good conditioning,\u00a0‘yun lang talaga<\/em>,\u201d Tabal said.<\/p>\n

Tabal, whose athletics career began when she was 12 years old,\u00a0said that her current weight \u201cis just perfect for a marathon weight\u201d.<\/p>\n

At stake in athletics are 45 golds out of the 405 total golds up for grab in the regional biennial sports event.<\/p>\n

In 2015, the Philippine track and field team collected 21 medals marked by its 5-7-9 (gold-silver-bronze) output and bannered the country\u2019s 29-33-66 (gold-silver-bronze) haul, good for sixth place.<\/p>\n

The 29th SEA Games opening ceremony will be held at the ultra-modern National Stadium located in Bukit Jalil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— \u00a0Filipino ace marathoner Mary Joy Reyes Tabal’s confidence in competing at the upcoming 29th\u00a0Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":112323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[2889,21324,17944],"class_list":["post-112320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kuala-lumpur","tag-mary-joy-tabal","tag-sea-games","mauthors-primo-agatep","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}