Charity Opara

Charity Opara-Asonze (born 20 May 1972 in Owerri, Imo State) is a former Nigerian track and field athlete.

Quotes

• I will say that sports has been or was in my DNA. I started from my primary school days. But I got noticed while I was running for my secondary school during the school inter-house sports competition at Obieziama Secondary School in Imo State. One of the athletics coaches at the then Imo State Sports Council, Chief Leo Ozurumba, just came to me after my race. He said to me, ‘you will run for Imo State and for Nigeria. You have the talent and determination.’ He later took me to the Sports Council and that was when it all started. I was about 12 years then.
  • CHARITY ASONZE: How AFN framed me up for drug use, The Nation, October 6, 2019.
• Hard work. Every training session was like my last on earth. There was the target of breaking and setting records before you. The coaches will remind you of getting your personal best time. At times, I even trained with the guys. This propels you to train daily as if your life depends on it. But truly, our lives then depended on athletics. So my strength was diligence. But I must add that once I remembered that I was running for Nigeria, it also drew inner strength for me.
  • CHARITY ASONZE: How AFN framed me up for drug use, The Nation, October 6, 2019.
• Fashion is your way of life. It is your statement. It is the way you feel like expressing yourself in all ramifications of life. For me, fashion is not just about dressing or makeup or jewelleries. It is about the way you speak, the way you carry yourself in public and the way you comport yourself among others. I don’t wear heavy makeup nor go crazy about clothes. I try to be as simple as possible. I also love to be very smart in appearance, may be because of my background as a former athlete.
  • CHARITY ASONZE: How AFN framed me up for drug use, The Nation, October 6, 2019.
• I am happy with the return of the National Sports Festival, after an absence of six years, because this is is an avenue from where we can spot future talents.
  • Charity Opara Urges AFN To Rebuild With Sports Festival, www.sports247.ng, December 6, 2018.

Quotes about Charity

• 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.
  • Falilat Ogunkoya as quoted in Ogunkoya: How Charity Opara and I Dominated The World In 1998!, Complete Sports, July 17, 2020.
• 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
  • Falilat Ogunkoya as quoted in Ogunkoya: How Charity Opara and I Dominated The World In 1998!, Complete Sports, July 17, 2020.
• 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.
  • Falilat Ogunkoya as quoted in Ogunkoya: How Charity Opara and I Dominated The World In 1998!, Complete Sports, July 17, 2020.
• I have been with you for years and we know ourselves deeply. I think we would make better couple. I have a deep feeling for you. Tried as I did to suppress it, I get more and more troubled.
  • Chief Innocent Asonze as quoted in CHARITY ASONZE: How AFN framed me up for drug use, The Nation, October 6, 2019.
• Apart from Ogunkoya, only two other Nigerians have been able to go under 50s: Charity Opara & Fatima Yusuf who are members of this exclusive club. In 1998, Opara ran a PB of 49.29s in Rome, while Yusuf ran a PB of 49.43s to win the African Games title in Harare in 1995!
  • Making of Champions as quoted in [1], Twitter, July 29, 2020.