The Olympic flame began the second day of its cross country journey in the rain and dark of the Vancouver Island community of Sooke on Saturday morning.
Several hundred people braved a downpour outside the community’s municipal hall to sing O Canada and hear a pipes and drums band.
Olympic officials ducked into an empty fire truck bay to transfer the flame from a miner’s lamp to the first torch of the day.
As the crowd cheered, Sooke’s Tanya Logan, 37, carried the flame to start the relay that was to continue through the communities of Westshore, north to the Cowichan Valley, Saltspring Island and Nanaimo.
Among the early runners in Sooke was Victoria’s Evan Fagan, a 72-year-old retired provincial government employee.
Fagan, a veteran of 137 marathons and 70 triathlons, said he would forever cherish the memory of carrying the Olympic torch.
“It was an amazing experience,” agreed fellow torchbearer Blaire Brown, 25.
The Victoria woman suffered a compound skull fracture in a snow-tubing accident when she was 11 and wasn’t expected to survive.
“I made liars out of most of the doctors,” she said.
From Vancouver Island, the Olympic flame will continue on its longest relay in history — a 45,000-kilometre trek across northern Canada to the Atlantic provinces and back.
The 106 day relay finishes Feb. 12 at B.C. Place in Vancouver, where the torch will light the Olympic cauldron to officially start the 2010 Winter Games.
On Friday, the Olympic flame passed through 147 pairs of hands in and around Victoria as thousands of people lined the streets to watch.
The first torch went to Saskatoon’s Catriona Le May Doan, a two-time gold medallist in speedskating, and Victoria triathlete Simon Whitfield, who won gold at the Sydney Olympics.
From a stage at the B.C. legislature, Whitfield and Le May Doan raised the torch aloft and jogged through cheering schoolchildren before passing the flame to Olympic rower Silken Laumann of Victoria and Olympic diver Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que.
The flame, kept safe in a miner’s lantern, arrived in Victoria behind schedule after weather delayed its flight from Athens to Canada.
Once on the ground, it was transferred on the Songhees shoreline to a First Nations canoe, which carried it across the Inner Harbour flanked by two other canoes.
Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong used the flame from the miner’s lantern to light a cauldron outside the legislature.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper reminded the crowd Friday that three billion people around the world will soon turn their gaze on Canada.
“This is our chance to showcase our home and native land in all of its glory,” he said.
“Ladies and gentleman, Canada’s games are another chance for us to remind the world that we are indeed the true north strong and free.”
Several groups protested Friday, causing a few disruptions.
What began as a peaceful afternoon protest in Victoria’s Centennial Square downtown grew to a parade of around 200 people who blocked the Olympic relay’s route through the Rockland neighbourhood, cutting 10 torchbearers out of the relay.
Police rerouted the relay to avoid clashes with the protest — taking the torch and torchbearers inside a van for safety. The relay later resumed nearby.
The only arrest happened when a protester allegedly assaulted a plainclothes officer. That person has since been released, said Victoria police.
Several hundred people braved a downpour outside the community’s municipal hall to sing O Canada and hear a pipes and drums band.
Olympic officials ducked into an empty fire truck bay to transfer the flame from a miner’s lamp to the first torch of the day.
As the crowd cheered, Sooke’s Tanya Logan, 37, carried the flame to start the relay that was to continue through the communities of Westshore, north to the Cowichan Valley, Saltspring Island and Nanaimo.
Among the early runners in Sooke was Victoria’s Evan Fagan, a 72-year-old retired provincial government employee.
Fagan, a veteran of 137 marathons and 70 triathlons, said he would forever cherish the memory of carrying the Olympic torch.
“It was an amazing experience,” agreed fellow torchbearer Blaire Brown, 25.
The Victoria woman suffered a compound skull fracture in a snow-tubing accident when she was 11 and wasn’t expected to survive.
“I made liars out of most of the doctors,” she said.
From Vancouver Island, the Olympic flame will continue on its longest relay in history — a 45,000-kilometre trek across northern Canada to the Atlantic provinces and back.
The 106 day relay finishes Feb. 12 at B.C. Place in Vancouver, where the torch will light the Olympic cauldron to officially start the 2010 Winter Games.
On Friday, the Olympic flame passed through 147 pairs of hands in and around Victoria as thousands of people lined the streets to watch.
The first torch went to Saskatoon’s Catriona Le May Doan, a two-time gold medallist in speedskating, and Victoria triathlete Simon Whitfield, who won gold at the Sydney Olympics.
From a stage at the B.C. legislature, Whitfield and Le May Doan raised the torch aloft and jogged through cheering schoolchildren before passing the flame to Olympic rower Silken Laumann of Victoria and Olympic diver Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que.
The flame, kept safe in a miner’s lantern, arrived in Victoria behind schedule after weather delayed its flight from Athens to Canada.
Once on the ground, it was transferred on the Songhees shoreline to a First Nations canoe, which carried it across the Inner Harbour flanked by two other canoes.
Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong used the flame from the miner’s lantern to light a cauldron outside the legislature.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper reminded the crowd Friday that three billion people around the world will soon turn their gaze on Canada.
“This is our chance to showcase our home and native land in all of its glory,” he said.
“Ladies and gentleman, Canada’s games are another chance for us to remind the world that we are indeed the true north strong and free.”
Several groups protested Friday, causing a few disruptions.
What began as a peaceful afternoon protest in Victoria’s Centennial Square downtown grew to a parade of around 200 people who blocked the Olympic relay’s route through the Rockland neighbourhood, cutting 10 torchbearers out of the relay.
Police rerouted the relay to avoid clashes with the protest — taking the torch and torchbearers inside a van for safety. The relay later resumed nearby.
The only arrest happened when a protester allegedly assaulted a plainclothes officer. That person has since been released, said Victoria police.
No comments:
Post a Comment