October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

LONDON, Oct 17: Eighteen young Londoners will be chosen over the coming months who will be among those to share the honour to become the torchbearers of the Olympic Flame as it passes through the British capital on way back to China for 2008 Beijing global games.

The Olympic Flame will arrive in London on April 6 next year as part of a worldwide torch relay that will see it travel to 22 cities on five continents and all provinces in China before arriving back in Beijing for the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in August.

With the slogan ‘Light the passion, Share the dream’ and the theme of ‘Journey of harmony’, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay will see 80 torchbearers carry the flame through a number of London boroughs, taking in historic and modern locations and passing through the city’s diverse communities.

Torchbearers will include young people recruited from London’s schools, colleges and sports clubs, as well as Olympians, other sports stars and celebrities. The Mayor of London has written to secondary schools in the capital, inviting them to nominate young people aged 14 years and over, with the aim of identifying eighteen young Londoners who will each carry the flame on part of its journey through the city.

Mayor Ken Livingstone, in a statement on Wednesday said: ‘Following the outstanding success of the Athens Olympic Torch Relay in London in 2004, it is a great honour for our city to participate in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and once again carry the Olympic spirit of friendship and co-operation between nations across the world.

’Staging the Torch Relay is a great privilege for the capital and demonstrates our support for the Olympic Games movement. In the year that will see the handover from Beijing to London, it is a unique opportunity to generate interest and excitement across the capital as London itself prepares for the Games in 2012.’ The Olympic flame for the Beijing Games will be lit in Olympia, Greece in March 2008. The flame will travel along the historic Silk Road, and visit 22 cities, including London, on the five inhabited continents from April 2008 onwards.

After travelling throughout the mainland of China, and reaching the summit of Mount Everest, the Olympic flame will finally arrive at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and light the main cauldron on 8 August 2008.

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, with the participation of more than 20,000 Torchbearers, the duration of 130 days, and the distance of 137,000 km, will be remembered as the one that covers the longest distance and the widest geographical expanse, and that involves the largest number of participants in the history of the modern Olympic Movement.—AFP