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    Marathoner Tabal tasked to provide spark for PH as SEAG athletics gets going

    Tabal favored to retain marathon title in SEA Games
    Dec 5, 2019
    PHOTO: Jerome Ascano

    NEW CLARK CITY – Team Philippines tries to tighten its claim to the overall title of the 30th Southeast Asian Games as it opens its campaign in the centerpiece event of athletics on Friday at the New Clark City Stadium.

    The men and women’s marathon kicks off hostilities with all eyes on top bet Mary Joy Tabal as she guns for back-to-back gold medals in the premier 42 km event.

    A total of 48 gold medals are at stake in track and field of which the host hopes to clinch a number of them in a bid to help its cause of regaining the overall championship it last won in 2005 when the Games were last held here.

    The 30-year-old Tabal, a native of Barangay Guba, Cebu, who represented the country in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics, is among the fancied Filipinos for a gold, although she’s expected to face a stiff challenge from rival Hoang Thi Thanh, the Vietnamese who bagged the silver medal behind Tabal in the 2017 edition of the SEA Games.

    Christine Hallasgo is the other Filipino entry in marathon.

    Jerald Zabala on the other hand, will carry the fight for the country in the men’s side along with Anthony Nerza.

    Zabala was named to the team as a replacement for Rafael Poliquit, who unfortunately passed away middle of this year.

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    The field will be flagged off at 6 a.m.

    The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) has projected at least a six-gold medal haul for the Filipinos led by pole vaulters Nathalie Uy and Olympic-bound EJ Obiena.

    Other gold prospects identified are Eric Cray (400-meter hurdles), Carter Lily (800-meter run), William Morrison (shotput), and Kristina Knott (100-meter sprint).

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    But Patafa president Philip Ella Juico said the projection could reach as high as 12 golds with other prospects likely to deliver including Tabal.

    The Filipino tracksters won a total of five golds in the 2017 edition of the Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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    PHOTO: Jerome Ascano
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