N.Z. to precede Aust.

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 1

N.Z. to precede Aust.

By

TOM BRIDGMAN

NZPA Seoul New Zealand will march ahead of Australia into 1 the Olympic Stadium on Saturday at the opening of the Olympic Games.

“It makes a pleasant change,” said the New Zealand team manager, Mr Bruce Ullrich, yesterday. The switch in the usual order came about because in the Korean alphabet the letter “g” was first, followed by “n,” he said. That meant New Zealand would march in sixteenth place and Australia would be back at 104th. A record 160 countries are expected at the Olympics. Traditionally the first country into the arena is Greece, historic birthplace of the Olympics, followed by the other nations in alphabetical order with the host country, in this case Korea, entering last. On Saturday Greece will be followed by the West African nation of Ghana. Australian team officials did not know of and were surprised at the switch, as they have become used to being near, the top of the order at big international competitions. Use of the Korean alphabet will also ensure that Iran and Iraq, which began a truce in their eight-year-old war in August, will not march one behind the other.