MILO Marathon Queen Mary Joy Tabal wins first place in the 39th National MILO Marathon in General Santos City. Photo credit: MILO Philippines.
A Filipina MILO marathon champion has earned a ticket to the prestigious Olympic Games in Rio de Jainero in August this year after beating the Olympic qualifying time in the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon in Canada earlier this May.
According to the press statement of MILO Philippines, Mary Joy Tabal clocked in with the time of 2 hours, 43 minutes and 29 seconds to surpass the 2:45:00 Olympic qualifying time for the women’s marathon.
”We’d like to share the good news with you that reigning MILO Marathon Queen Mary Joy Tabal just secured a slot to play in the Rio Olympics when she finished the race in the recently concluded Ottawa Marathon in Canada,” said Andrea Alido, account executive of Strategic Edge, Inc., MILO Philippines’ PR partner.
After falling short in her stint at the Boston Marathon last April, Tabal unleashed an impressive comeback in Ottawa’s prestigious footrace.
Known as the Great White North’s largest and fastest marathon, the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon is one of two International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Gold Label races in Canada, attracting a world contingent of about 7,000 runners every year because of its flat and fast race course.
The 26-year-old Cebuana gained a substantial lead against other competitors, and was able to rank 5th in the female age group, 8th in the overall elite female category and 38th in the overall elite male and female category, out of a total of 4,416 elite participants.
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News story from Manila Bulletin.