GONE are the days when women were considered as inferior to men.
Empowered women Mary Joy Tabal and Eva Marie Noya proved that women can do anything that men can do. Both Tabal and Noya excel in sports, a field which men dominate.
Tabal, who hails from Barangay Guba, Cebu City, is famous in the race track since she started running seven years ago. Her career peaked when she competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics and became the first Filipina marathoner in the sports competition.
Tabal kept on achieving more. During the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, she brought home the gold medal in the women's marathon with a time record of 2 hours, 48 minutes and 26 seconds.
She finished Milo Marathon national finals for 2 hours, 58 minutes and 1 second in women's division last year held in Cebu City Sports Center. It was her fifth straight win.
Tagged as "the girl who cannot stop running," Tabal said she is looking forward for her next run. She is preparing for Asian games in Indonesia on August 18, Southeast Asian games in 2019 here in the Philippines, and Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Being compared to men, Tabal does not feel inferior.
She said, in race track, men and women are equal. But what differs her to men runners? She said, as a runner, she is more motivated and focused.
"I'm a woman, I'm very weak outside, but if given a challenge and if I love what I do, mo stand-up gayud ko bisag unsa pa ka struggle ang maagian (I stand up despite the consequences),"she added.
She said that women athletes today are very influential. She highlighted that she is very proud to be one of those women athletes who represented the country in the last Olympics.
Asked if what keeps her running, she said "My first inspiration is my papa, my family is always behind me from the start since mao man gayu'y mas nakaila nato (they know us better) and then my friends, my coaches, my sponsors, Cebuanos, Filipinos, and my dream."
Like Tabal, 40-year-old paddler Eva Marie Noya is also an inspiration to women and people with deformities. She shows that having a disability is not a hindrance to engage in sports.
Noya is a boat side paddler of Philippine Accessible Disability Services (PADS) Adaptive Dragon Boat women's team for a year now.
Since she joined dragon boat team of PADS, she gained self-confidence. Despite the deformities on her hands and legs, she paddles with strength, just like abled persons do.
She said that dragon boat is a very friendly sports especially for persons with disability (PWD).
"Nindot nga sports ang dragon boat alang sa mga persons with disability kay maglingkod raman gud sya. Ang among deperensya sa kamot or sa tiil kay dili apektado kaayo. Kay sa dragon boat, maglingkod raman mi. So ang kamot lang, although gamit namo ang tiil pero dili gyud parehas anang uban nga magdagan dagan," she added.
(Dragon boat is a good sports for PWD because the athletes are only sitting. The deformity of our hands or feet is not affected that much. We only use our hands, unlike other sports which entail running.)
Noya proves that nothing is impossible and everything is fair in sports. Together with her team, they took home the gold medal during the Hong kong International Dragon Boat Race 2017.
For now, the team is preparing for the Cebu Dragon Boat Fiesta in April this year, Boracay International Dragon Boat Race, Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Race 2018 on June, and Chicago International dragon Boat Festival.
The PADS Adaptive Dragon Boat team is open for those women ages eight to 63 years old.
JP Maunes, CEO and co-founder of PADS Dragon Boat team, said sports is a good rehabilitation program for PWDs.
Aside from dragon boat race, the organization created various programs for them like wheelchair basketball, standup paddling, adaptive kayaking and adaptive yoga.
Maunes said that modifying sports fit for PWDs will give them a chance to be more productive. (SunStar Philippines)