Flags are up and the Games begin

BEIJING- The order of this year's Olympic parade of nations takes afun linguistic twist. Generally, with the exception of Greece who has the honor of goingfirst, the nations are presented alphabetically.

However, this year the nations will be presented in Chinesealphabetical order, or the number of brush strokes needed to make the firstsyllable of the countries name.

 Latvian Javelin thrower Vadims Vasilevskis has the honor ofcarrying the Olympic flag for the second time the Latvian Olympic Committeedecided the day before the ceremony. He carried the flag in the 2004 AthensGames as well.

 This year seems to be the year of basketball with the sports flagbearers from China, Germany, Argentinaand Russiaas well as SarunasJasikevicius of the Lithuanian team.

 Estoniawill be represented by Martin Padar a Judochampion.

The following information is purely preliminary as order canchance at any time before the ceremony.

Estoniais due to appear 13th after Irelandand before Andorra, althoughsome sources list Estonia asnumber 161 after Ireland andbefore Haiti.

 Latvia isto be at spot 115 after Tanzaniaand before the United Kingdom

 Lithuaniais scheduled to be presented as number 57 after Indonesiaand before Niger.

The Opening Ceremony is to being at 8 p.m. Beijing time on August 08. The ceremony is expected to last until 11:30 p.m.