October 19, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 6, 1428

BEIJING, Oct 18: Beijing organisers are designing a high-tech Olympic torch capable of withstanding gale-force wind, torrential rain and even the oxygen-thin air atop Mount Everest, state media reported on Thursday.

To eliminate chances of the flame going out, authorities have set up a torch design lab under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the Xinhua News Agency said.

“The flame ... should be bright and very pleasant to the eyes,” technician Xue Li was quoted as saying.

The Olympic flame was introduced to the modern Olympics in 1928.

Ahead of each games, the torch is lit at Olympia in Greece — site of the ancient Olympic Games — and transported to the host city by a relay of runners, with the last using it to ignite a cauldron at the host stadium during the opening ceremony.

It has gone out at least twice during a Games, including at the 1976 Montreal Games when it was drowned in a rainstorm and was restarted with an official’s cigarette lighter.

The organisers later relit it with a back-up flame lit at Olympia. Xinhua quoted Xue as saying the roughly 25-centimetre high flame is designed to resist gusts of up to 32.6 metres per second and downpours of up to 50 millimetres per hour, Xue said.

Its fuel would be “well stored and pollution-free, Xue added.

Torch fuel has traditionally been a mix of butane and propane that gives off a bright yellow flame without releasing toxins or thick smoke.

Beijing organisers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history – a 137,000-kilometre, 130-day route that would cross five continents.—AP