WITH barely a year and half to the next general elections, controversy lingers in Ekiti State over the 2007 poll. The dust raised remains thick as a part of the state returns to polling centres tomorrow.

LINFORD Christie’s niece is on track for Olympic fame AND the Miss World crown. Gorgeous Rachel Christie, 20 who trains with gold medallist Linford, 49 is tipped to represent Britain in 2012 as a 400m sprinter and heptathlete.

IF information from the designated arms collection centres in the six states of the Niger-Delta, where penitent militants were supposed to turn in their weapons, register, take the oath of renunciation and receive the presidential amnesty is anything to go by, then, the Federal Government has a problem in its hands, despite the official grandstanding to the contrary, as militants are still holding back the arms in their various camps.

NDUKA Ugbade is becoming a fading memory. How many remember that he was the only person to lift the FIFA U-16 trophy as high as nervousness could permit, that cold night, 24 years ago in China? After that edition, FIFA changed the competition to U-17, Nigeria was also the only winner of the FIFA U-16 competition.

As the athletics world prepares to descend upon Berlin for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (15-23 Aug) it’s appropriate to take a quick overview of the German capital’s rich athletics history in which some of the sports greatest legends were made, and numerous significant barriers broken.