MARY Joy Tabal proved a point Sunday when she took the top honors in the women’s 21-kilometer run of the 2016 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon
She improved on her second-place finish last year in earning the crown this time.
“I had a good pace from start to finish and once I got to the lead – even though I was feeling so cold – that was it,” said Tabal in article, which came out in the online edition of the South China Morning Post.
The 26-year-old Tabal, who is from Cebu, started strong and was already ahead two kilometers into the race. She held on to the lead until she crossed the finish line in one hour, 21 minutes and 41 seconds.
It was her second crown in a month after taking the women’s 42-km honors of the 39th national Milo marathon last month.
“I started behind the elite runners, but knew in these wet conditions I had to get to them quickly. Once I did, I just thought to myself ‘run as fast as you can’,” said Tabal, who was ahead of Taiwan’s You Ya-jyun (1:22.46) and Shiho Asada of Japan (1:24.27).