Rallying: Reigning champion Sebastien Ogier dominated the opening day of the third round of the World Rally Championship in Mexico. Frenchman Ogier won the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally in January and last month’s Rally Sweden to make the perfect start to his title defence and has begun brightly at Rally Mexico in Guanajuato. The Frenchman had to settle for third place in the opening stage, but guided his Volkswagen to victory in the longer second stage to reassert his dominance. Ogier is first overall after the two stages with a combined time of four minutes and 13 seconds, with Belgium’s Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville second (4min 14.2secs) and Volkswagen’s Andreas Mikkelsen third (also 4:14.2).
Athletics: Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the Briton with the talent to become the best all-round woman track and field athlete, just missed out on the pentathlon world record as she landed the first gold of the European Indoor Championships yesterday. Johnson-Thompson, tipped to follow her compatriot Jessica Ennis-Hill as an Olympic heptathlon champion, became only the second woman to break the 5,000 point barrier for the one-day, five-discipline event. The 22-year-old Liverpudlian, known as ‘KJT’, compiled a total of exactly 5,000 points but, despite running a personal best in the final 800 metres event, she finished 13 points shy of the world record held by Ukrainian Nataliya Dobrynska.
Auto Racing: No criminal charges will be filed against suspended NASCAR driver Kurt Busch in a domestic abuse case involving his former girlfriend, prosecutors in Delaware said. Patricia Driscoll said Busch grabbed her by the neck inside his motor home at Dover International Speedway in Delaware on Sept. 26 and repeatedly slammed her head against a wall. Bush, the 2004 Sprint Cup champion currently on an indefinite suspension by NASCAR over the incident, admits to cupping Driscoll’s cheeks but said he never hit her head. Busch, 36, has portrayed Driscoll, 37, as seeking revenge after he tried to end their relationship. Regan Smith has filled in for Busch as driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet during the first two Sprint Cup races this season.