The Hindu : Sport : Former stars add glitz to torch relay

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Thursday, Oct 12, 2006
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Sport - Sports : General

Former stars add glitz to torch relay

Special Correspondent

LEADING LIGHT: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit hands over the torch to Milkha Singh as Lt. Governor B.L. Joshi looks on.

NEW DELHI: The flame of the Doha Asian Games was merged with the Eternal Flame of the Olympic Council of Asia at the National Stadium here on Wednesday.

Legendary quarter-miler Milkha Singh was the first among the 40 torch-bearers after Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit handed over the torch.

Thereafter the relay covered 4.5km in about an hour, passing through Rajpath and Janpath before returning to the stadium.

Inside the stadium, hurdler Gurbachan Singh Randhawa passed on the flame to sprint queen P.T. Usha and wrestler Satpal and the duo went on to light the cauldron placed on the dais.

Prominent among the torch-bearers were athletes Shiny Wilson and Sriram Singh former hockey stars Zafar Iqbal, Jagbir Singh and M. K. Kaushik, former Asian badminton champion Dinesh Khanna and Asiad silver-winning swimmer Khajan Singh.

Officials and others from Qatar dominated the India Gate segment, on the outward journey of the torch. It was a poorly organised show made worse by a late start and lack of coordination among the marshals.

Jostling cameramen added to the commotion and they almost brought the relay to a stop at several places en route, especially around India Gate.

The live coverage by DD was not up to the mark with the viewers being forced to watch the headlights of the accompanying trucks much of the time.

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