Accusations over torch bearer

by SUZANNE McFADDEN

Minutes after the Olympic flame was lit, it flared into a bushfire, with new accusations of nepotism in the International Olympic Committee.

Across the Tasman, there is outrage that 11-year-old Sophie Gosper, daughter of IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper, was the first Australian to carry the Olympic torch on its 15,000km journey from Greece.

Some say the girl from Melbourne jumped the queue because of her family connections, when it would have been more PC to hand the torch to a Greek-Australian schoolgirl from Sydney.

Then there were problems just getting the torch going on Wednesday. The traditional method of igniting the flame with the sun's rays failed because it was too cloudy, so officials took a spark from the dress rehearsal.

The flame now travels around the Pacific, arriving in New Zealand for the first time on June 6.

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