Tabal SEAG-bound, okays Patafa rules

MANILA, Philippines -  After all that’s been said and done, Mary Joy Tabal will get her crack at the gold in the women’s marathon of the 20th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur.

The veteran of the 2016 Rio Olympics got the green light yesterday from the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, which earlier said Tabal was no longer welcome to the team.

The Patafa has chided the 27-year-old Tabal for her failure to toe the line as a member of the national team, and the latter’s insistence to do things on her own.

Philip Ella Juico, the Patafa chief, laid down certain conditions for Tabal to follow for her to be reinstated to the national team and make it to the SEA Games in August.

Tabal, a silver medalist in the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, wrote a letter to the association the other day, saying she’s willing to abide by the Patafa rules.

Juico said Tabal stated in her letter a “commitment to comply with all of Patafa’s rules and regulations” and that she has agreed to put herself under a designated coach.

Tabal, currently training overseas, has promised to report for duty once she arrives on Aug. 9, and has agreed to have five-time SEA Games gold medalist Rene Herrera as her coach.

Juico, however, said Tabal could bring her own technical staff to Kuala Lumpur.

Tabal won the silver in the last SEA Games with a time of three hours, four minutes, 39 seconds, and was one minute, 14 seconds behind Natthaya Thanaronnawat of Thailand.

The bronze medalist from Vietnam was three minutes behind the Filipina, winner of the Milo Marathon, the most prestigious race in the Philippines, the past four years.

Tabal carries a personal best of 2:43:31, which she set in the run-up to the Rio Olympics. But it’s no guarantee of the gold in the SEA Games because in marathon, the conditions vary with every race.

In the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar, a runner from Vietnam won the women’s gold in 2:45:34, followed to the podium by two runners from Myanmar at 2:46:07 and 2:49:01.

But if Tabal matches her personal best or at least comes very close to it, she will have a shot at the gold in Kuala Lumpur.

“We look forward to Ms. Tabal working with the entire Patafa team as a positive contributor to the victories that the 33 other members of the athletics team are well on their way to achieving for the country and the Filipino people,” said Juico.