Eugene Bingham: Genial Kiwis set off alarm in security brouhaha

COMMENT

In this place of super-heavyweight security, who would have guessed that two genial New Zealand Olympic team leaders would be the cause of a giant scare?

Chef de mission Dave Currie and Olympic legend Sir Murray Halberg inadvertently triggered a bomb alert at the sailing venue when they mistook a security check for a valet parking area.

By the time they got back to their car, it had been driven a very safe distance away from the sailors to an arid wasteland where the Army was considering whether to blow it up. The bomb squad and their dogs crawled over it, and helicopters buzzed overhead.

Now Currie, 59, and Sir Murray, 71, do not exactly cut the figures of a couple of terrorists. In fact, two more harmless-looking blokes you could not hope to meet.

But their experience is a reminder of how twitchy the security services in Athens are. I say reminder deliberately because, to be honest, the level of protection around the Olympics has not been as oppressive as everyone thought.

Sure, there are security checkpoints to pass through, with x-ray machines and even spot checks with little hand-held vacuum cleaners to detect explosives, but on the whole it has been pretty laid back.

It is as if the Mediterranean sun has melted the tension away and we are left with the smiles and warm welcomes of the security forces.

Which makes the fact that Currie and Sir Murray caused such a brouhaha all the more amazing.

The problem arose through communication problems and the Kiwis' insistence that they drive themselves around. Most other chefs de mission have drivers, but Currie feels more comfortable behind the wheel than in the back seat.

He pulled up at the sailing on the south coast on Tuesday and was waved through several checkpoints.

"Eventually, I saw people in uniform driving cars away so I thought they were telling me to go and they would take the car," said Currie.

So off they went, leaving the keys in the black Hyundai issued to them by the organising committee.

But when they got back, they could not find the car. Oh, boy, what a palaver erupted when they asked.

"One guy in particular was most unhappy and his female colleague was restraining him," said an "embarrassed" Currie.

"She could see the humour in it. But she said to me, 'You are very lucky I was here.' I was very embarrassed."