London Eye: BOA takes spirit of unity too far in football tournaments

The embarrassing North Korean flag debacle on Wednesday seems to have initiated a worrying trend of incorrect nationalities for the football events so far at the Games.

Joe Allen, a midfielder in the Team GB football side who was born in Carmarthen, South Wales, and is fluent in Welsh, has been wrongly listed as English in the official Team GB programme. While the Swansea player's passing would be a useful asset in England's midfield, his eight caps for Wales make this scenario impossible.

Thankfully, his compatriots in Stuart Pearce's squad Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Aaron Ramsey and Neil Taylor have been correctly identified as Welsh.

It seems the British Olympic Association has failed to grasp that Team GB's football teams contain players from all over the UK – when the British women defeated New Zealand 1-0 on Wednesday, a press release sent out from the BOA used the headline "England Women on their way", forgetting that two of the 18 members of the squad are Scottish.

Sato meditates on gold for Japan

While Britain's eventing team includes a member of the royal family, Japan's contains a Buddhist monk named Kenki Sato, whose family are not descended from royalty, but have illustrious horse-riding pedigree.

Sato's brother competed in the last Olympics in 2008, his sister is a five-time national jumping champion, and his father was a member of Japan's team in the 1980 Games.

In order to compete at the Games, Sato, 27, has taken extended leave from the Myoshoji temple. Will his path to enlightenment lead to a gold medal?

Russians to send torch into space

En route to London, the Olympic flame has been carried to the top of Mount Snowdon, and abseiled into the Tower of London, but organisers of the Russia 2014 Winter Olympics have ambitions to go one step further. "We are planning to take the torch into space – and we will," Dmitry Chernyshenko, the committee president, announced yesterday.

Tweets of the day

Usain Bolt plus Jamaican entourage brought eating to a brief pause on their first visit to the food hall. He looked very excited too! Ashleigh Ball, GB hockey

Swam in competition pool this morning! Trying to imagine stands on Saturday filled with Brits, atmosphere will be amazing! :) Michael Jamieson, GB swimmer

Just arrived to the Olympic village, ill describe it in one word – Amazing ;) Manuel Huerta, US triathlete