DIGEST:At the end of the first day of Wales Rally GB, Mikko Hirvonen led his Finnish compatriat and fellow Ford driver Marcus Gronholm by 23.2 seconds, with Sebastien Loeb holding station in third in a Citroen C4.
After the first four stages Hirvonen led Gronholm by 25.6 seconds, with Loeb in the leading Citroen C4 keeping in touch with Ford's Flying Finns and not taking any chances.
The Frenchman was less than two seconds down on Gronholm and commented: "I just drove safely and the strategy is to continue like this.
"I'm not pushing too hard, I'm just focused on staying on the road. My situation is a bit frustrating, but it's more important for me to win the championship here than the rally."
Gronholm and Loeb were joint fastest on stage five, but Hirvonen was again in fantastic form on the final test to win his fifth stage of the day.
Whilst the two Ford drivers were supporting each other, Loeb's Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo was not really at the races in seventh place, behind Subaru drivers Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson, and Jari-Matti Latvala in a Ford Focus RS.
Today's town centre start of the Killarney Historic Rally marks the start of the "Christmas in Killarney" Festival.
Over 200 entries were received for the mandatory 150 starting places, and making a return to the classic stages is Russell Brookes, three times Circuit of Ireland winner.
WEEKEND FIXTURES: Today - Killarney & District MC, Historic Rally, starts Killarney, 1.10pm. Tomorrow - Historic Rally, restarts Killarney racecourse, 7.15am; Carlow CC, Rallysprint, Mondello Park, 10.00am.
Jacques Rogge, the top Olympics official, said he's "puzzled" by an appeal panel's decision to overturn a lifetime Games ban of 400-metre world champion Christine Ohuruogu.
The 23-year-old was successful in her appeal of a British Olympic Association ban for missing three out of competition drug tests. The UK appeals panel that cleared her cited "significant mitigating circumstances" and said it will provide more detailed explanation of its decision.
The reasoning "will be very interesting because ultimately she missed the test and that for us is a sanction", Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said. The IOC might be able to challenge the UK panel's ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
BOXING:Wayne McCullough was last night left "devastated" by the cancellation of his big fight with European super-bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez.
Martinez failed to make the agreed weight for the fight of 8st 12lb, scaling one and three quarter pounds more and after being given an hour to lose the weight he didn't return.
McCullough had scaled three pounds under the agreed weight and was ready to fight but the European champion, whose title was not on the line, walked away from tonight's show at the King's Hall which was cancelled by promoter Pat Magee.
McCullough's wife and manager, Cheryl, said: "We had agreed 8st 12lb as the weight for the fight and in an email told promoter Pat Magee that if Martinez was an ounce over we would not be fighting. It's a disgrace."
McCullough, a former WBC bantamweight champion, had hoped that victory over Martinez would lead to another world title shot in 2008 but now once again his career is on the brink.
"I'm not only disappointed, I'm disgusted," said McCullough. "Any fighter, of course, can miss the scales by a pound or two, but then they go off and do what they have to do to try and get the extra weight off.
"Martinez made no effort at all. He didn't even try; he didn't look for a rope to do even 10 minutes of skipping . . . he made no effort whatsoever. He just sat there, doing and saying nothing.
"My wife and manager, Cheryl, and I are thinking, 'Get your butt off that chair and try and do something' - but he just wouldn't budge. I was really looking forward to this fight, my first in my home town in five years."
