AFN President, Solomon Ogba, yesterday ordered that the top three winners in all the events of the Mobil Athletics Championship will face doping tests. Mobil starts next week.

The International Air-port Abuja will be agog today as athletes jet in, preparatory to the Mobil Championship holding next week.

Athletics Federation of Nigeria said yesterday that it was inviting students living in Abuja and its environs to tomorrow’s Grand Prix that will showcase top athletes from many countries.

Asenior staff of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, slumped and died in the office, Sports Vanguard can reveal. The death of Ibukun Omoseyi, senior driver at the Liaison office of the Federation in Surulere brought panic to the staff when the late Omoseyi slumped from his seat. A very dependable source informed that the late Omoseyi had reported to duty hale and hearty.

No less than 80 players drawn from around the Nigeria, Benin Republic and Cote d’ Ivoire are expected to storm the garden City of Port_Harcourt for the 2009 edition of the Royal Hoopers Basketball Elite Camp holding at the Police Officers Mess grounds situated in the GRA.

WORLD Soccer-governing body, FIFA, paid an unscheduled visit to Nigeria during the week and caught members of the Local Organising Committee for the cadet championship napping. Unlike in the past when they announced their coming, they came like a ‘thief in the night’ and visited some of the centres designated to host the championship.

DR Peter Singabele, board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, could not believe his eyes at the excellent facilities at the Teslim Balogun Stadium during the final of the Federation Cup which Enyimba won at the expense of Sharks of Port Harcourt.

Captain Victor Ezeji is lamenting Sharks’ inability to win a major silverware since the inception of the Port Harcourt based outfit, many years ago.

In 2006, Vanguard published the first story on Ogho Oghene Egwuro. Winning the 100m event in the Delta State Sports Festival was newsworthy, knowing the pedigree of the state in track and field and their ability to churn out athletes.

Nine years after Imo State-born Glory Alozie dumped Nigeria for Spain, the 2000 Sydney Olympic 100m hurdles silver medallist is one of the top track and field stars expected to run at this Saturday’s CAA Abuja Grand Prix.

The Nigeria Football Federation announced yesterday that Warri Wolves, which finished 4th in the Nigeria Premier League in the recently-ended season, will fly Nigeria’s flag in next year’s CAF Confederation Cup.

PRESIDENT GENERAL (World-Wide) of Supporters Club, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo, took a cursory look at the mammoth crowd that turned out at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Sunday to cheer Enyimba and Sharks in the Federation Cup final and declared that Governor Babatunde Fashola has done well for football.

In a bid to reinforce the stature of the MTN brand as truly international, the telecommunications giant has expanded the frontiers of its strategy to enrich the lives of its customers by making history as the first brand of African origin to sponsor a FIFA World Cup, the very first to be played on the African soil.

Captain Okey Odita has admitted that Enyimba were lucky to scrape a 1-0 victory over Sharks in the final of this year’s Federation Cup held weekend at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

I want to say that Nigeria will qualify for the World Cup. And it is only Okocha who can speak whether he will come back or not. There are many variables to one coming back to the team.