Mahe Drysdale leads the New Zealand team into the Olympics opening ceremony. Photo / Kenny Rodger
Was it just a slip of the tongue or was Kiwi triathlete Bevan Docherty first choice for the honour of being the flag bearer at yesterday's Beijing Olympic opening ceremony?
When the New Zealand contingent, led by beaming flag bearer Mahe Drysdale, walked into the Bird's Nest Stadium,
the English-language commentary team announced him as Docherty. There was a pause of a few minutes before the commentators corrected themselves, seemingly after being passed new information.
This fitted with information gleaned by the New Zealand press corps ahead of the announcement - pointing to a Docherty appointment. There was also what appeared to be an accidental reference to Docherty at a New Zealand press conference which suggested the triathlete might carry the flag.
And while the television people were clearly updated the New Zealand flag bearer was called Drysdale and not Docherty, the fact they had Docherty's name at all led to speculation he had been first choice.
The Herald on Sunday has also heard Docherty was to have been the flag bearer and it now appears that, about a week out, something spurred a late change. Just what it was remains a mystery. Drysdale also said at his appointment he had first been contacted about it three weeks ago.
Docherty has been training at an island off Korea - meaning he would have had to fly to Beijing and then back to Korea again as he is not due to compete until August 16.
Usually, athletes facing that kind of schedule are not considered for the honour.
However, neither are those competing the next day - as Drysdale was.
It is not known how many, or if any, other athletes have turned down being flag bearer after agreeing, if that is what happened, but it is almost certainly rare.
Docherty would have been a serious contender - even though Drysdale was impressive and immediately grew into the role - as the 31-year-old is one of the senior statesmen of the New Zealand contingent, a silver medallist in Athens and his event was comfortably apart from the opening ceremony (even if he had to make a trip from Korea). Docherty was unavailable for comment yesterday.
