Olympic torch: London route is revealed
LONDON 2012 organisers today reveal the route for next summer’s Olympic torch relay, which will culminate in a comprehensive seven-day tour of the capital’s 32 boroughs and the City.
The flame will be transported on horseback, bicycle, tram and steam-train during a 70-day route through every corner of the British Isles, from the Shetlands to the Channel Islands and most places in between.
Famous landmarks such as Stonehenge, Mount Snowdon and Loch Ness will provide the backdrop to stages of the relay, which begins in May and ends in July, when the flame will arrive at the Olympic Park in Stratford.
The final week will see the torch visit every single London borough and the City, before being transported down the Thames to the East End for the Games’ opening ceremony on 27 July.
Details of the streets through which the flame will pass have yet to be finalised but are expected to be confirmed early next year.
It will be lit in Olympia, Greece, in May before being flown to England, where 8,000 volunteers will carry the flame on its 8,000-mile trek. Organisers say the torch will pass within 10 miles of more than 95 per cent of the population.
The national tour will begin in Land’s End, Cornwall on 19 May and take in every single county in England and all local authority areas in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Nominations for torchbearers have closed and the first names will be confirmed in February.
For full details of the route and an interactive map see www.london2012.com