Motor Racing: Martin Whitmarsh has officially parted company with McLaren after more than 24 years of service. Whitmarsh served as head of operations, managing director and F1 CEO during his time with the organisation before taking on the role of team principal in 2009. In January this year, however, McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis effectively staged an internal coup, returning to his former role as Group CEO, ousting Whitmarsh in the process.

Asia Games: South Korea has re-joined thorny negotiations over North Korea’s participation at next month’s Asian Games after the North agreed to scale down the size of its delegation. North Korea had threatened to pull out of the Sept. 19-Oct. 4 Games to be held in the South Korean city of Incheon. The North asked via letter exchanges last week to resume talks and said it would trim its delegation down to 273 from the 352 submitted to the Olympic Council of Asia earlier this month.

Tennis: Wimbledon hero Nick Kyrgios came close to being thrown out of the US Open for swearing. The 19-year-old Australian eventually made headlines of the right sort with a 7-5 7-6 2-6 7-6 victory over Mikhail Youzhny. Kyrgios had already been given two code violations in the third set – one for bad language – and another at the start of the fourth set saw him penalised a game. One more incident would have resulted in Kyrgios being defaulted.

Rugby Union: England’s bid for Rugby World Cup 2015 glory has been boosted by Stuart Lancaster securing Pennyhill Park as the host nation’s main training base. Head coach Lancaster has opted to keep England at their accustomed Bagshot headquarters for as long as possible during the pool stages of the 2015 tournament. England could even stay at their normal Surrey base for all but one fixture in the whole competition, should they top Pool A and progress to the final. Lancaster’s men will base themselves in Salford for their final Pool A match on Saturday, October 10, at the Manchester City Stadium. England will play three of their four pool contests at Twickenham, and will gain clear benefit from sticking to well-practised routines.

Equestrian: British veterinary surgeon John McEwen has announced he is to stand for the presidency of world equestrian sport’s governing body the Federation Equestre Internationale. The post becomes vacant in December following Princess Haya’s decision not to run for a third term. She has been president since 2006.