66. Post-War Belles of the Breaststroke: NORMA GUERRERO & LOLITA RAMIREZ, National Record Holders

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 2^nd at 3:47.4. secs. Ramirez was a revelation coming in 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 2^nd 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.

 SOURCES

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

24. The Country’s Swim Star of the 1930s: ESTELA LOZADA

Philippine Women’s College was founded way back in 1919 during the American regime and even before it attained its university status in 1932, it was already known for its excellent swimming program conducted in its own huge “Belen Perez Swimming Pool”—the country’s 1^st indoor competition pool.  From the start, the women’s swimming program, had the full support of the college. After all, one of the founders,  Francisca Tirona was married to the outstanding U.S.-trained swimmer Conrado Benitez, and that the school’s  chairman of the board of trustees was an avid swimming enthusiast himself, Jose Abad Santos.

It was no wonder then that PWU bred some of the most talented women’s swmmers of the country, making a name for themselves first in interscholastic tournaments,  and later, at the national championships and international meets. PWU’s champions included such nationally-ranked swimmers as the Abad Santos mermaids (Amanda, Victoria. Luz), Emma Benitez, and the Gonzaga sisters. But the most accomplished of them all was ESTELA LOZADA, Cebuana lass broke records, and who got to represent the country in meets of international level.

Estela Lozada must have inherited her competitive genes from her father, Jose Lozada, who was a Division Engineer for Mindanao and District Engineer for Lanao. In his prime, Jose was a U.P. athlete who won Golds in the 220 yard hurdles at both 1913 and 1915 Far Eastern Games. He also won Silver for the 100 yard sprint in 1913, and a Bronze for the 120 m. hurdles at the 1917 Far Eastern Games.

Lozada first barged into the national scene during the U.P-PWU Dual Swimming Meet held on 7 Dec. 1934. Before a banner crows at the Rizal Memorial natatorium, the seemingly undefeatable state scholars were shocked when they were routed by the strong PWU swimmers with the score of 35-15.

The PWU swimmers made a clean sweep of all the first places, led by Estela Lozada, who set a new Philippine record for the 100 m. backstroke event, with a time of 1 min, 34.4 secs. On top of that, Lozada won the premiere 100 m. freestyle event in 1 min. 29.8 secs., trailed by 2 PWU team mates. She was also part of the gold-winning 400 m. freestyle relay team.

For this feat, Lozada was chosen to represent the Philippines in the 1934 Far Eastern Games in Manila, on which the first official women's events—that included 4 swimming events-- were held for the first time, at parity with the men’s events. That meant that medals won by women were counted and added to the official medal tally. Lozada, however, came home unplaced, with the Chinese swimmers dominating the pool events. Still, her debut participation in an international event spurred her even more to exceed her best.

Lozada was part of the national team that went to the 1935 Formosa-Philippines Swimming Championship. There, she copped a precious Silver in her pet event—100 m. backstroke, with team mate Natalia Gonzaga in 3^rd place.  But bigger things were in store for the swimming star at the 1936 National Swimming Championship, when the powerhouse PWU Women’s Swimming Team emerged as the National Champion, with Lozada winning Gold in the 100 m. free, 100 m. backstroke, and 400 m. relay races.

At the 16^th Annual Athletic Commencement of the PWU on 19 March 1936, Lozada was one of the 25 athletes who received their letters and prizes from Mrs. Sergio Osmeña. Lozada was cited for her individual and team achievements at the 1936 National Championships.

She was back in Formosa for the 1937 5th Philippine-Formosa Dual Swimming Meet held from May 15-17, but this time, the Philippine delegation lost. The team, headed by Judge Mariano Nable, president of the Philippine Islands Swimming Association, returned home on May 30.

As a consolation, Estela Lozada, upon her homecoming was shortlisted as a candidate for the T-V-T Women’s Popularity Contest, mounted by the publisher of Tribune, La Vanguardia and Taliba. She also lost the contest, decided by balloting; Mrs. Pacita Villareal won as most popular.

Lozada made up for it 2 years later at the 6^th Philippine-Formosa Dual Swimming Meet at the Jose Rizal Natatorium, Manila, when she bagged another Silver in the 100 m. backstroke, clocking in at 1:32.9, edged by Formosa’s T. Yahisa who won Gold with 1:32.3 mins.  Filipina Perla Tagle settled for the Bronze at 1:33.3 mins. This was the last known competition of Estela Lozada. She pretty much disappeared from the limelight and not much was known about the rest of her life.

In the 1950s, the surname Lozada surfaced again when a new generation of Lozadas swam their way to national and international prominence—Remberto, Gertrudes, Corazon, and Tessie—who were, however, unrelated at all with 30s swim star.

SOURCES:

Various Tribune issues, 1933-1939, accessed through Trove.

Graphic Magazine, 1933, Recalling the Far East Championship Games