Falilat Ogunkoya on Charity Opara

“We made the whole world to focus on just the two of us in the women’s 400m. Charity was in great form and had a 5-0 lead in our first five meetings together. I remember she ran an altitudes aided 49.87 in Johannesburg and I came a distant second in 50.27.”

“I lost to Charity by the narrowest of margins in Oslo (50.13 to 50.15) and thought I was getting back to shape but when she scorched to a new 49.29 seconds personal best at the Golden Gala in Rome, I was scared my African record would be gone that year if I didn’t get into shape. I was third in that race that night in 49.89 seconds. It was my first run inside 50 seconds that year but Charity’s performance got me really worried. She was 3-0 up at this stage but my worry and that of my coach, Tony Osheku was that we could lose the African record of 49.10 seconds that got me a bronze medal at the Olympics in 1996. My coach even said if she breaks the record,we would go back to our base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA to train harder. It was that scary”

“In Dakar, Charity was the favourite to win. She was on top of the world ranking at that stage with some quality performances including the 49.29 seconds she ran in Rome which was the second fastest in the African all-time list at the time. I was however unshaken in my resolve to end her dominance over me! In the final, I raced home first in 50.07 seconds with Charity second in 50.13. Wow, I was on top of the world not because it was my second African Championships 400m gold after the win in 1989 in Lagos, but because I was emotionally lifted and I didn’t look back from there, winning the 200m in a new 22.22 seconds personal best. I won our next four encounters in Lausanne, Brussels, Berlin and Moscow at the Grand Prix final before running an altitudes aided 49.52 seconds to win the World Cup in Johannesburg. It was a remarkable turnaround for me and a glorious show by Charity and I that got us ranked 1, 2 in the world. That was the first and so far only time Nigerians would dominate an event in the circuit.”