Tabal hopes qualifying window for Olympics gets extended

WITH the 2020 Tokyo Olympics now postponed, Olympic aspirant Mary Joy Tabal is hoping for an extension on the qualifying window as the Olympic qualifiers in the past months were halted because of the health crisis.

The organizers of the Summer Games have rescheduled the world’s biggest sporting event to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021 to safeguard the health of the athletes. The 2020 Olympics was supposed to start on July 24.

As qualifying events were eventually cancelled or postponed, the athletes are asking for some extension time, including Cebuana and Rio Olympian Tabal, who saw four of her international races get cancelled.

“I just hope that since the Olympics has been postponed, it’s good if they extend the qualifying period so we can still run and try to qualify even after the last qualifying this June 30,” Tabal told SunStar Cebu.

If the qualifying period is extended beyond June 30, 2020, the Cebuana pride wants to compete in the Berlin Marathon in September. She is also looking at two scheduled international races in June and July, but both races are still unclear because of the ongoing pandemic.

“I have the KL Standard Chartered in June and the Gold Coast Marathon in July. But I already received an email from the Gold Coast Marathon about a pre-announcement of a possible cancellation because of the lockdown or community quarantine until the end of May in Australia,” she said.

Tabal, 30, is hoping this will be over soon so she can start running again outdoors.

“I have a lot of time to recover and fully heal. But for now, we will work on things that we can do indoors,” said Tabal.

On the postponement of the Olympics,

Tabal said it was the right move from the International Olympic Committee and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as they value the health of all the people involved.

“I’m glad that we will be able to have the Olympics at a time when it will be surrounded by excitement and celebration rather than stress and anxiety and because the safety of the people in the world will always be most important,” she said. “And also, it is just postponed and not cancelled. Right now, we should all be more concerned about the health of our world than excellence in sports.”