Busy First Day At Five-Ringed Circus In London: Suspensions and Delays

First, THE IAAF has announced nine athletes have been suspended ahead of the London 2012 Games for doping. The list include eight women and one man: Ukrainian runners Nataliya Tobias and Antonina Yefremova, Bulgarian sprinter Inna Eftimova, Moroccan marathon runner Abderrahim Goumri, Greek steeplechaser Irini Kokkinariou, Turkish distance runner Meryem Erdogan, and Russian long-distance runners Svetlana Klyuka, Nailiya Yulamanova and Yevgenina Zinurova.

Then, as the Colombian women were set to play the North Koreans at Hampden Park in Glasgow, North Korea's women's Olympic soccer team refused to start match because of a flag dispute.

The South Korean flag was mistakenly displayed on the matrix board during player introductions, and for 40 minutes (and counting) the DPR squad failed to start the game. The two countries, South and North Korea, went to war in 1950 and an armistice was signed. But the two countries have one of the most fortified borders on the planet even today.

More when we know more...

1540 UPDATE: London Olympic organizers have apologized to North Korea for displaying South Korean flag and the match is set to start in Group G at any moment...

Here's the oops, thanks to our friends at CBSSports and James Crossans' Twitter Feed...