MARY Joy Tabal’s run will take off tonight (Phil time.) at 8:30 p.m. (That’s 9:30 a.m., Rio time.)
The Women’s Marathon will start and finish at the famed Sambodromo — the same site of the celebrated Rio Carnival, which attracts over two million revelers who party and dance the samba.
Joy Tabal will have plenty of company when she runs. There are 171 participants, including the reigning world champion Mare Dibaba, whose personal best is 2:19:52.
The marathon course is expected to take Joy and her fellow marathoners along some of the most iconic city spots. Called by the organizers “a marathon of sights,” they’ll coast past venues that include the Flamengo Park and Botafogo Beach.
For us here at home, there’s good news. There’s an excellent chance that we’ll watch Joy race. Thanks to TV 5 and their website Sports5, I’ve been enjoying nonstop Olympic coverage the past week.
Here’s the trick: Visit YouTube and type “Sports5.” Once there, you’ll be treated to nine channels featuring different sports. What I do (using my laptop) is to open a link per channel; this way, once all nine tabs are open, I’m able to flip through the options and select which sport I’d like to watch.
This is better than TV. It’s like watching nine various TV channels. At the onset of the Olympics, I complained that SkyCable did not show much coverage. It was Cignal (the Manny V. Pangilinan-owned company that also owns TV5) that grabbed the exclusive rights for the Rio Games.
And now, this — the all-free, all-day-long online coverage. Thank you, MVP, and your media outfits, TV5 and Sports5 (through www.sports5.ph), for opening up the live feed to the world.
Since the Games began, the attention has been on swimming. Michael Phelps has proven why he’s the Michael Jordan of his game. Only 31, he says he’s retiring after Brazil. You really think so? After he’s been caught smiling and crying for joy upon receiving those gold medals? Like Ryan Lochte, I’d bet that Phelps returns to Tokyo 2020 — as a not-very-old 35-year-old — to collect more hardware.
Katie Ledecky? What dominance. She has been likened to a marathoner winning the sprint distances. Only 19, at the rate she’s going, she’ll rival the medal-haul of her fellow American, Phelps.
How about the scary moments for the U.S. basketball squad? After trailing Australia and squeaking out a nail-biter against Serbia yesterday, are the Americans in trouble? The team of Coach K is composed of 10 first-time Olympians. Only Carmelo and KD are returnees. This isn’t the Dream Team with Magic and Larry; there’s no LeBron or Curry.
“We do have more talent, and we have to get our talented playing much better as a team,” said coach Mike Krzyzewski. “Our guys are playing as a team. They just haven’t had the experience of playing that long together.”
They play France next before the knock-out quarterfinals start on Wednesday.
The most-awaited contest? It’s the 100-meter sprint. The men’s final contest between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin will be (Phil. time) tomorrow at 9:25 a.m.
In tennis, wow — who’d have thought that Rafael Nadal, injured the past months, would win gold. And in men’s doubles! This shows us that these top netters, who play exclusively singles in the main tour, can be the top doubles players, too. Let’s see if Rafa can add a singles gold to the one that he won in Beijing.
And then there’s Joseph Schooling, who schooled Phelps by winning gold in the 100m butterfly event yesterday — harvesting for Singapore its first ever gold. His time of 50.39 was an Olympic Record.
Back to the Sports5 homepage in YouTube, the good thing with their coverage is there’s also plenty of highlights. As of yesterday, there were 147 videos that contained summarized versions of various events. Plus, if you missed it, you can watch portions of the Opening Ceremony. And, there’s our pride and joy, the first Pinay to win an Olympic medal and our first medal-winner in 20 years: Hidilyn Diaz.
(john@pages.ph)