The Olympic gold medalist Linford Christie was convicted of careless driving at Aylesbury Crown Court yesterday.

Former Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie was cleared of dangerous driving today but found guilty of careless driving.

The Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Linford Christie was driving on the wrong side when he collided head on with a taxi carrying a newlywed couple, a court heard.

Alice-Azania Jarvis looks into the rise - and potential fall - of Britain's favourite fruit

It has been one of those moments when, as if we have suddenly been spooked by the chilly uncertainties of today and tomorrow, there has been a general scurrying back to the warmth and safety of yesterday. The newspapers have earnestly discussed weddings, public schools, frocks and class. Broadcasters of the old-codger school have bemoaned how fings ain't wot they used to be. A couple of veteran British pin-ups have been back in the headlines.

Unwanted he may – or may not – be on the field for England by Fabio Capello, but there is no doubt that the oft-maligned David Beckham does his bit for his country off it. He was influential in securing London's bid for the 2012 Olympics, may well win a few votes from equally star-struck Fifa members when the 2018 World Cup destination is decided in December, and this weekend he is cheering on British competitors as the Special Olympics European Games open in Warsaw. What's special about these Games is that they cater for those with learning disabilities, which includes Down's Syndrome and autism, who are not eligible for the Paralympics. Having watched last year's UK event in Leicester I can testify it is the most understated event in the sporting calendar. Watched by Beckham and France's Zinedine Zidane, who like him is a Special Olympics global ambassador, around 1,500 athletes from 57 countries will compete in half a dozen sports, and for some just completing a lap of the track could be the highlight of their lives. "There are 1.2m people in this country with learning disabilities, so it is good they can be recognised through sport in this way," says the Special Olympics GB chair Lawrie McMenemy. Backed by the National Grid, Britain have a team of 48 who were given a send-off at No 10 by David Cameron, whose own son Ivan, a cerebral palsy sufferer, died last year aged six. He told them: "The whole country will be cheering you on." So we should be.

On paper, at any rate, professional sport is still a matter of more or less gentlemanly behavioural codes

Flood is more of a playmaker than Wilkinson, though neither has Cipriani's game

We broke firsthand accounts of foreign news, dissected the state of Britain and campaigned to help our children. What happened next?

"Linford Christie said to me 10 years ago, 'when I look good, I run faster'," Jochen Zeitz, chairman and CEO of the sportswear giant Puma told a Paris press conference yesterday, announcing the designer Hussein Chalayan's appointment as Puma's first ever creative director. Puma has also bought a majority stake in Chalayan's London-based fashion label for an undisclosed sum, ensuring the future of one of the world's most creatively accomplished designers is assured.

Former sprinter Linford Christie will not take part in a relay carrying the Olympic torch through London, it was confirmed today.

BRITAIN'S MOST successful athlete of all time has twice failed drugs tests. So perhaps it would be prudent to omit him from this series on the great and good of the century. It would also be unreasonable. At the height of this Olympic champion's career there was no evidence that he was one of the many athletes whose cheating led to the sport being diminished.

PAUL STERLING is likely to be the oldest player in Super League next year, his late-season form for Leeds having earned him a new one- season contract at Headingley.

Yesterday Michael Watson won the first round of his battle with the British Boxing Board of Control. But it was the fight he lost on 21 September 1991 that still haunts the sport he loved