Standing room only for opening march

Thousands of athletes have been told there is standing room only at tomorrow night's Olympic opening ceremony.

While there is enough room for all 10,000 athletes to take part in the traditional march, organisers underestimated by 2000 the number of athletes who would want to watch from the stand.

The problem has not come as much of a blow to the New Zealand team because so many athletes are bypassing the ceremony to prepare for competition on day one.

About 110,000 people will cram into Stadium Australia for the opening bonanza of the Games.

Each country was allocated enough tickets for every athlete plus six officials for the march-past, while just 2900 stand tickets were available for competitors who did not want to walk. More than 4900 athletes asked for the stadium seats.

Team heads were given a limited number of stand tickets yesterday and were told they would have to ask the rest to march - or watch on television from the athletes' village.

New Zealand's deputy chef de mission, Richard de Groen, said the under-allocation would not harm his team too much.

With a host of athletes competing on Saturday morning, many had opted to stay in the village.

"Hockey have told us they are not going to march and we've got track cyclists, women's triathlon, swimming and shooting on day one too," said de Groen.

Those who are marching face a marathon effort. In a military-style operation, 45 buses will leave the village every 20 minutes to transport the athletes to the Sydney Superdome, where they will prepare to file into the stadium.

The first team to leave the village will be Greece at 5 pm (Sydney time) while the last, Australia, rolls out the gate at 6.40 pm. They are not expected to be home before midnight.

"That is a big time commitment that some people don't want to make," said de Groen.

Meanwhile, one of the big secrets of the New Zealand team will be revealed when the flag-bearer is named today.

It is predicted the honour will go to equestrian Blyth Tait, the only defending Olympic champion in the New Zealand team.