Olympic torch on the move

The Olympic flame is now being paraded in the course of a 70-day, 8,000-mile tour all over the United Kingdom with six island visits, a stop in Dublin and 8,000 torchbearers, including five Filipinos, in the relay cast that will go down in history as the group lighting the way to the opening of the London Games on July 27.

The journey began last May 19 after the torch was brought in by plane from Greece, the Olympic birthplace, where it also went on tour. The Princess Royal Anne, London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) chairman and two-time Olympic 1,500-meter run gold medalist Lord Sebastian Coe and football hero David Beckham were on board the plane that delivered the torch to England.

Selecting the 8,000 torchbearers involved sifting through 28,000 anonymized nominations by 12 regional panels made up of representatives from the local culture, sports, voluntary education, youth and local government sectors as designated by the LOCOG. To qualify as a nominee, each candidate must be proved to have contributed to the community and achieved a significant feat. The Olympic values of respect, excellence and friendship must shine through each nominee’s personal story.

Lord Coe himself is a torchbearer. Chosen to carry the torch for 300 meters in the first leg was triple Olympic sailing gold medalist Ben Ainslie, a 35-year-old, six-time world Finn champion. Ainslie was the first to be named to the UK Olympic delegation and will be shooting for his fourth Olympic gold medal in London. The oldest torchbearer is Polish-born Diana Gould, a seamstress by profession who will be 100 when she carries the flame two days before the Olympic inaugurals. Gould was married to a taxi driver and today, conducts a twice-a-week session for retirement homers on keeping fit and staying mobile. She used to play netball, table tennis and badminton in her youth.

The youngest torchbearer is Dominic MacGowan, 11. Another youthful torchbearer is Minehead School student Joseph Lintern, 12. A senior citizen in the lineup is 91-year-old Arthur Gilbert who joined his first triathlon at 68 and has now competed in 21 meets. He was 90 when he finished his most recent triathlon in June last year with a time of two hours, 45 minutes, 43 seconds. A former engineer at Westland Helicopters, Gilbert was awarded an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in 2008.

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The relay route will come within 10 miles of 95 percent of the UK population. Runners will cover up to 300 meters at a time only and 80 percent of the journey will be by boat, horse, cable car, hot-air balloon, tram, train, bicycle or motorbike. It will bring the flame to 1,019 cities, towns and villages.

UK Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie congratulated the Filipinos who are among the Olympic torchbearers. “We want Filipinos to share the (Olympic) excitement,” he said. “In Manila, your athletes, such as boxer Mark Anthony Barriga, Palaympian power lifters Adeline Dumapong-Ancheta and Achele Guion and table tennis player Josephine Medina are completing their preparations in readiness for that final moment when four years or more of training comes to fruition and they reach for Olympic gold. Side by side with our own athletes, we will be cheering them on and willing them to succeed.”

The identity of the last torchbearer to bring the flame to the Olympic cauldron in a highlight of the opening ceremonies is usually withheld and kept in suspense. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, the last torchbearer was Muhammad Ali. And in Beijing four years ago, it was artistic gymnast Li Ning who bagged three Olympic gold medals in 1984.

The five Filipinos who are in the torchbearers list are Rodolfo Sebastian Carlos, 38, Steven Cheung, 22, Reymund Enterina, 30, Joven Mallo, 29 and Marcy Reyes. 47. Carlos, Mallo and Reyes were nominated by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) which is sending over 70 inspiring employees all over the world to serve as torchbearers. The IHG is the official hotel sponsor of the London Olympics. Carlos, a thyroid cancer survivor, is based in Atlanta while Mallo and Reyes work in Manila. Cheung, whose mother is Filipina, was the youngest candidate for the European Parliament in 2009 and lives in the UK borough Waltham Forest. Enterina is an occupational therapist residing in Tonbridge.

Reyes and Mallo will carry the torch together through Whitefield on June 23 then Carlos through Willenhall on June 30, Cheung through Waltham Forest on July 21 and Enterina through Barking and Dagenham on July 22.

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Carlos said his involvement in the Olympics as a torchbearer is a dream come true. “As a kid, I always fantasized about participating as an athlete in the Olympics,” he said. “This eventually faded as I grew older, especially my body. As a kid, I remember seeing the most dramatic torch lighting ceremony done by an archer in Barcelona on TV. I also remember watching on TV Muhammad Ali being a torchbearer himself. Through the years, I found it always fascinating to watch the torchbearers on TV and just fantasized on how cool it would be to be one of them.

“Last year, the office posted that they were looking for nominations for the Olympic Torch relay. Some members of my team kept on mentioning that I should be part of that and told me that they would nominate me if I wanted to pursue this. Luckily, I had learned from mistakes of the past and did not hesitate or procrastinate and gave them my immediate affirmative answer.

“By being an Olympic torchbearer, I hope to serve as an inspiration to the youth of the Philippines, to keep on chasing after their dream. I would also like to bring awareness of thyroid cancer and inspire fellow survivors to give support to those who are currently battling the disease. Lastly, I would like to promote awareness of Filipino martial arts and a life-long physical culture lifestyle of living healthy and strong.”