Kids inspire Joy
Kids in grassroots program motivates Tabal; Coach recalls three-year journey in Olympic chase
THE kids in the grassroots running program in Cebu were one of the motivations of Mary Joy Tabal when she ran in the Olympic qualifier.
“I told her if you qualify to the Olympics you can inspire many kids. Even if you don’t win just being in the Olympics alone is a big achievement. If you get that, kids in Cebu will start dreaming to become an Olympian because they will know it’s possible because you have done it,” Dueñas, the long-time coach of Tabal, told Sun.Star Cebu.
Tabal and Dueñas offer free coaching to kids in mountainous barangay of Cebu City. The grassroots program for running of Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) in cooperation with Department of Education (DepEd) started on the first quarter of 2015.
Dueñas said that she told Tabal in 2013 after winning her first Milo Marathon title, to aim for the Olympic qualifying race. But Tabal just laughed it off and said it was too much to dream for.
“She realized that she can inspire kids when we started coaching the grassroots program in 2015,” said Dueñas “I then told her to dream big because there’s no wrong in dreaming. You have to set a higher goal for you to improve.”
The 26-year-old Tabal won the silver medal in her first time, in the 28th Southeast Asian (Sea) Games, and won her third title in Milo Marathon last year.
Dueñas said that she started to believe that they can make it to the Olympics after Tabal showed fast progress on her training. Tabal, though, fell short in her first try in the Boston Marathon last April but joined another qualifier in just a span of two months.
She finally made the mark in the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon in Canada last weekend as she clocked 2 hours 43 minutes and 30 seconds, which was one minute and 30 seconds clear the Olympic qualifying time. She also made it to the Top 10 in the women’s division, finished eight out of 1,455 female runners.
“We prayed for this because we wanted to inspire others, es- pecially young runners. With trust in your ability and faith in God it’s all possible,” said Dueñas.
Tabal is an inspiration to young runners with her humble beginning. The former sprinter once collapsed at the finish line on her first long distance race. She was also advised by many not to shift to long distance running and just remain as a sprinter.
“There are a lot of people who had bad comments on her shift to long distance, but I told her that you have the endurance and if you will develop it, you will become the fastest marathoner in the country,” Duenas said.
From a sprinter, Tabal became the marathon queen in the country and is now poised to be the first Filipina to qualify in Olympic marathon.
But there is uncertainty on her trip to Rio Olympics after the Philippine Amateur Athletic As- sociation (Patafa) said that Tabal needs to write a letter of reinstatement to the national team. After the letter will be submitted, the Patafa executive board will have the final approval. Tabal resigned from the national team after a short stint last year.
The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will meet today to discuss the issue.