The Philippine Women’s University was one of the
first schools to have a competition-size pool—the Belen Perez Swimming Pool--
as part of its excellent facilities. It was no surprise then that since the
1930s, P.W.U. has been producing top women’s swimmers of the country who
got to compete in national and international meets like the Far East Games,
the Formosa-Philippine Dual Meet, and the Hongkong-Manila Interport
Meet. Names like Estela Lozada, Aurora Suntay, Ester Garcia, the Abad
Santos and Gonzaga sisters, dominated the headlines of sports news with
victories in the pool, putting PWU on top of the swim heap over FEU,
U.P. and the American School.
Add to this roster, two swim sensations NORMA GUERRERO and LOLITA RAMIREZ, both high schoolers, who continued the P.W.U. streak in the 1940s.
Ramirez was the toast of the Manila Women’s Swimming League, a competition formed in 1948 by the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation. Since the majority of the leading female swimmers were high schoolers who regularly bested college swimmers, the PAAF management committee decided to merge both participants in one student swimming league.
In the inaugural 1948 series, 5 schools (P.W.U., U.P., Mapa High, the American School, F.E.U.) and one independent group (Pandacan Swimming Club) joined the league. Guerrero helped P.W.U. win the overall championship by winning her 200 m. breaststroke event, thus installing herself as a national breaststroke champion (unfortunately her time was unrecorded,
In the first quarter of 1949, the National Women’s Swimming Championships held with its very first finals on it opening day, Feb. 18: the 200 m. breaststroke event. P.W.U. was represented by Norma Guerrero and the youngster LOLITA RAMIREZ. Guerrero took the Gold with a time of 3:41.0 sec., while U.P.’s Encarnacion Portillo was a distant 2nd at 3:47.4. secs. Ramirez was a revelation coming in 3rd with her 3:48.9 secs. effort. This would be the start of a friendly feud between the schoolmates in the breaststroke event, which would result sometimes in a see-saw battle that saw them breaking each other’s records.
Norma Guerrero was the flag raiser at the opening of the 1949 Manila Women’s Swimming League on Sep. 6, 1949 at the Rizal Memorial pool. A strong favorite to defend her 200 m. breaststroke title, Guerrero was bested by her own P.W.U. team mate Lolita Ramirez, who broke her record not once, but thrice. En route to grabbing the Gold Medal, Ramirez first surpassed Guerrero’s record in the preliminary race with 3:33.2. mins.; at the Semis, she lowered her time to 3:30.4 mins. and then finally at the Finals, she clipped her own record down to 3:29.4 mins.
Before the final event—the women’s 4 x 100 m. relay--the score stood at 19-17 with Far Eastern University enjoying a 2 point lead over the defending champion P.W.U. The two champion breaststrokers, who were also good in the crawl stroke, were called upon to win the 3rd and 4th leg of the P.W.U. team. Leading off was the high schooler A.Rotaeche and Elvira Nonato. With Ramirez swimming third and with Guerrero as anchor, the P.W.U. team vanquished the F.E.U. ladies to keep the women’s league championship trophy.
The Guerrero-Ramirez rivalry happened again a few months later, on Nov. 26, at the 1949 Manila-Hongkong Interport Meet, when the Guerrero, representing Manila, regained her record by doing a 3:27.8 mins. in the 200 m. breaststroke event.
The next year, at the 1950 National Intersecondary Meet held on the 3rd of February, Ramirez lopped off a full 2 seconds from Guerrero’s record to win the Gold, in 3:25.8 mins. To her misfortune, the clocking was not recognized because only 2 stopwatches were used, instead of the recommended 3. Just two weeks later, Guerrero, competing at the 1950 National Open Swimming Championship, reset her official record to 3:25.8 mins.
On 15 June 1950, at the very first Philippine
Sportswriters Association (P.S.A.) Annual Awards Awards held at Avenue Hotel , both
Norma Guerrero and Lolita Ramirez were honored for their outstanding
performance in Swimming, a well-deserved recognition for both ladies. Tennis
great Felicisimo Ampon was named PSA Athlete of the Year.
After 1950, Guerrero seemed to have left swimming altogether to concentrate on fher collegiate studies. Before finishing high school, Lolita Ramirez represented Manila in the 1951 Manila-Hongkong Interport Meet and swam the finals of the 200 m. breaststroke event, finishing in 2nd place to HK Swimming Association’s Kwok Kam Ngor, with a time of 3:29.5 mins.
After Ramirez’s high school graduation, she and
enrolled at the University of the East. There, the new U.E.
collegian continued to make waves
, breaking all previous breaststroke records of her former schoolmate.
She registered a Philippine record for the 100 m. breaststroke, clocking in at 1:32.5 mins., set in Oct. 3, 1953, during a dual meet La Fortuna MSL-Selection Dual Meet in Manila. Ramirez returned to the Women’s Swim League 11 says later and established a new national record for the 200 m. breaststroke, with a fast time of 3:13.7 mins. As of 1955, both records were still standing.
Guerrero and Ramirez would be the last 2 great breaststroke specialists to emerge from post-war Philippines. 1958 was the last time that a Filipina would make headway in the breaststroke event, with Victoria Cagayat winning the Bronze in the 200. m. breast. at the Tokyo Asiad in 3:09.3 mins. It would take almost 2 decades before another real breaststroker, in the person of the Nancy Deaño of Iloilo, would find multiple successes in the podiums of the Asiad and the Southeast Asian Games.
The Filipino Athlete,
Official Publication of the P.A.A.F, Iloilo City Colleges Retains National
Swional Women’s Championship, April 1949, p. 3-4, 16.
The Filipino Athlete,
Official Publication of the P.A.A.F, “The Manila Swimming League”, Nov.
1949.p. 3-6
The Filipino Athlete,
Official Publication of the P.A.A.F.
“Records Committee-Swimming-National Records 149-1950 Season”,
August 1950, p. 9
The Filipino Athlete,
Official Publication of the P.A.A.F. “Iloilo
College Recapture Swimming Title, March 1951, p.13
