OLYMPIAN Mary Joy Tabal and Jeson Agravante will be among first to see action in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Kumpur.
The men’s and women’s marathon competition will start on Aug. 19 with Tabal seeking to improve on the silver medal finish that she achieved the last time around in Singapore.
A clocking that is better than the time of 3 hours, 4 minutes and 39 seconds is expected of her.
That’s after Tabal broke her own record by posting her time of 2:47:49 last December in the 40th Milo National Marathon last December.
Her Milo Marathon clocking is even better than the 3:03:25 of Natthaya Thanaronnawat when the Thai won the gold in the Singapore SEA Games.
Tabal had been training in Italy and recently won a medal in the 2017 Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend half marathon in record-breaking time last May.
Agravante, who clocked 2:35:13 in the Milo Nationals, is expected to be within the range of the time of 2015 SEA Games bronze medallist Hoàng Nguyên Thanh of Vietnam (2:37:10).
Last month, Tabal was allowed to rejoin the Philippine Athletics team to the Kuala Lumpur Games.
The 27-year-old Cebuana got the green light after the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association granted her request to be reinstated.
Tabal is returning to the national team for the third time.