The Hindu : Sport : Torch relay to touch Mumbai

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Saturday, Apr 28, 2007
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Torch relay to touch Mumbai

Beijing: The torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will touch Mumbai as part of its 137,000km journey across 135 key cities in 130 days.

The flame, which will also touch world's highest peak, Mount Everest, will finally arrive at the National Stadium in Beijing on August 8, 2008 through the hands of 21,780 torchbearers.

The torch, unveiled here on Thursday night, was inspired by scroll and cloud, the organisers said.

Resembling an ancient scroll and featuring "lucky cloud," the red and silver torch put to rest a debate over whether to highlight Chinese traditional or modern elements by incorporating both.

"The Beijing Olympic torch boasts distinctive Chinese cultural features, and technical excellence and sophisticated materials. It will carry the friendship that Chinese people extend to the world and the Olympic spirit to the five continents and to the peak of Mount Qomolangma (Chinese name for Mount Everest)," president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympics (BOCOG), Liu Qi said. Experienced mountaineers will be selected to carry the torch to the summit at any possible date in next May depending on the weather, Jiang said.

The aluminium-made torch is 72cm long and weighs 985gm.

The relay, dubbed the "Journey of Harmony," is planned to begin on March 25, 2008, with the lighting of the flame at Olympia, followed by a one-week journey to Athens, where the Greek Olympic Committee passes the torch to a representative of China on March 30. A grand launching ceremony for the torch relay will be held in Beijing on the following day to mark the start, with the flame heading for its first stop at Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 1. — PTI

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