Francisca Sañopal

Francisca Sañopal, originally from Montinola, San Joaquin, Iloilo, was one of the top female Filipino athletes of the 1950s, specializing in short distance sprint events. She attended the Cebu Institute of Technology where she began her successful athletics career, winning the intercollegiate 100 metres title in 1954 and national 80 metres hurdles title in 1955, bettering the previous record set by Manolita Cinco by 0.2 seconds. This led to her selection to compete at the Olympic Games held in the following year at Melbourne, Australia, but there, was eliminated in the heats of the 80 metres hurdles event. In the following years, Sañopal won the two silver medals in 80 metres hurdles at the 1958 Asian Games held in Tokyo and at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games, also adding a silver in the 4 × 100 metres relay at the latter alongside Inocencia Solis, Mona Sulaiman and Aida Molinos.

Personal Best: 80H – 11.4 (1957).