Tabal tops Milo Butuan

REIGNING Milo Marathon queen and Milo Marathon Finals record holder Mary Joy Tabal remained unstoppable with consecutive victories in both local and international races. After winning in South Korea last week, she stamped her class anew in the 38th Milo Marathon Butuan qualifier yesterday in Butuan City.

The 25-year-old runner from Talamban had another impressive performance after clocking 1 hour 20 minutes and 46 seconds. She was very dominant and finished more than 20 minutes ahead of the closest runner and from the pack.

Michell Ann Aclo crossed the finish line in 1:42:30 to take second place and Jenefer Paloma finished the race in 1:44:05 to salvaged third place.

Tabal was with her coach John Philip Dueñas, who raced in the men’s 21K.

“This race is already plotted in our training. I have to join in a qualifying race,” said Tabal

Tabal has already earned a slot for the National Finals by the virtue of her victory last year, but according to her, the slot doesn’t come with an all-expense paid trip so she needed to participate in a qualifier to get an assurance.

“Ang ako nahibaw-an kay automatic qualified nako pero murag akoa tanan expenses to go to the Finals. Mao sad ako concern,” said Tabal, who was almost 15 minutes clear of the 1:35 cutoff needed to get an all-expense paid trip to the national finals.

On the other hand, Dueñas, who is also a triathlete, finished fourth in clocking 1:16:36, failing to get his target 1:15 time. It was still good enough to qualify to the Milo Marathon Finals.