Former queen of the tracks, Mary Onyali has recounted the emotions that flew through her mind and made her weep after winning a gold medal at the 1995 All Africa Games in Harare, Zimbabwe.
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The former African 100m metres record holder, who was in Accra, Ghana for the recent 13th Games, recounted that it was her second gold medal of the 1995 competition, in which she won both the 100m and 200m events.
That added to her total personal haul of 11 gold medals in a sterling career, including one at the Commonwealth Games, as well as bronze at both the Olympic Games of Barcelona ’92 and Atlanta ’96.
Mary Onyali took time out to reflect on highpoints of her heyday and admitted that she indeed has to be proud of what she achieved for Nigeria, for which she won her first African Games gold medal in 1991.
She, however, went on to confess that she is stuck between her heroics at the Games of Harare, Zimbabwe in 1995, or COJA 2003 in Abuja, Nigeria, to recall her best moments on the tracks.
Mary Onyali stated at length: “Zimbabwe was close to my highest point. I was vibrant, in top shape, in college, and doing well. I was happy that I could do in Africa what I was doing in the USA.
“I was so emotional to hear my national anthem as I stood on the podium, and I don’t know when tears came rolling out of my eyes.
“Abuja 2003 was my swansong. It was my goodbye to Nigeria and Africa. It was symbolic that I started my career at home, and I was ending it on home soil.
“I was captain of Team Nigeria and also captain of athletics; it was too much for me. I wanted to win more medals again, but I got only one.”
She concluded by hailing the performances of Nigeria’s young athletes at Ghana 2024, where the track legend admitted she was happy seeing them display hard work, dedication, discipline and tenacity – some of the attributes that also made her achieve so much on the tracks.
