Mary Joy Tabal

Mary Joy Tabal-Jimenez

OLY

Mary Joy Tabal at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Birth name	Mary Joy Reyes Tabal
Full name	Mary Joy Reyes Tabal
Nickname	MJ
Nationality	Filipino
Born	(1989-07-13) July 13, 1989 Cebu City, Philippines
Education	Southwestern University (BS, MPA) Cebu Technological University (DPA)
Height	149 cm (4 ft 11 in)
Weight	45 kg (99 lb)
Sport
Country	Philippines
Sport	Track and field
Event	Marathon
Coached by	John Philip Dueñas
Retired	2022
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
Personal best	Marathon 2:43:31 (2016) Half Marathon 1:16:29 (2017)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing Philippines Event 1st 2nd 3rd Southeast Asian Games 1 2 0 Total 1 2 0 Southeast Asian Games 2017 Kuala Lumpur marathon 2019 Philippines marathon 2015 Singapore marathon

Mary Joy "MJ" Reyes Tabal-Jimenez, OLY DPA (born July 13, 1989) is a Filipino marathon runner. She is the first female Filipino marathon runner to qualify for the Olympics, which she has done by running a time of 2:43:29 in the Scotiabank Ottawa Marathon in 2016. She placed 124th at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Tabal, a veteran of local and international marathons, made her official debut at the 2003 Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam and has won a silver medal in the women's marathon competition in the 2015 Southeast Asian Games in Singapore, and a gold medal in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and won the women's division title in the National Milo Marathon Finals for six straight years, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. She was recognized as the 2016 Athlete of the Year by the Sportswriters Association of Cebu. Tabal and fellow marathon runner Rafael Poliquit Jr. represented the Philippines in the 2016 Boston Marathon in April 2016. She finished 20th overall in the race.

Career

2003

Tabal's debut at the 2003 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam as a national athlete at Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and a marathoner at Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) when she reached the age of 14 to qualify as an Olympian ahead of 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. However, due to increasing public pressure and the ensuing intervention of the International Amateur Athletic Federation under Lamine Diack, PATAFA president Go Teng Kok, PSC chairman Eric Buhain and the country's Department of Foreign Affairs agreed with Tabal to the national team upon making an exception to grant her a Philippine passport. Tabal eventually travelled in December 2003 to Hanoi, Vietnam and became the official Philippine competitor to the sporting event.

2004

After her successful debut at the 2003 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, the 15-year-old Tabal in her first Olympic Games as a participant and she will compete in women's marathon.

2005

Tabal returns to compete at the 2005 SEA Games Athletics women's marathon.

2016

On July 13, 2016, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) reinstated Tabal in the national team, a year after she resigned due to conflicts between training and sponsorship agreements with Motorace Racing, Tabal's sponsor, but it was removed from the association's national team in September 2016, days after her Olympics stint.

On December 4, 2016, Tabal won the women's category of the Milo Marathon National Finals in Iloilo and she became the first runner in the marathon's history to complete a four-peat title record by clocking in 2 hours, 47 minutes and 57 seconds.

2017

At the first day of the 29th Southeast Asian Games on August 19, 2017, Tabal gave the country's first gold medal after dominating the 42 km women's marathon event with an official time of 2 hours, 48 minutes and 26 seconds.