Tabal rules General Santos leg of National Milo Marathon

CEBU, Philippines – Cebuana road running queen Mary Joy Tabal reigned supreme in the premier division of the General Santos City leg of the 39th National Milo Marathon yesterday.

Being the reigning Milo Marathon queen, Tabal is already assured of a slot in the national finals on December in Angeles City, Pampanga, but she still competed in the GenSan leg as her tune-up race.

The Southeast Asian Games silver medalist Tabal opted to take the GenSan leg as she was busy guiding young runners who are product of Cebu City Sports Commission’s grassroots program during the Cebu leg last week .

The  26 year-old Tabal is  topped the 21K women’s class as she finish the race in one hour, 21 minutes and 42 seconds to dethrone last year's champion, Mona Liza Ambasa  who ended second in 1:35:03 as  Noemu Andrea Galeos wound up third in 1:52:44 clocking.

“I joined this race as part of my training for the finals. I want to test my progress and so far, I’m on track in my training, but I’m continuously working on my conditioning to have a better chance of retaining my

crown,” said Tabal.

In the men's side, veteran Juneil Languido posted a time of 01:14:04, overcoming his rivals Elmer Bartolo (01:16:47) and Gilbert Maluyo (01:20:42) who finished second and third place, respectively. (FREEMAN)