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Delhi leg of Olympic torch relay today

Special Correspondent

IOA invites prominent sportspersons

— Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

STARS CONVERGE: Anju Bobby George, Leander Paes and P. T. Usha looking forward to the Beijing Olympic torch relay on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: It will be a great honour for the 70 who will carry the Olympic torch in the Indian segment of the relay from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate on Thursday afternoon.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President, Suresh Kalmadi, addressed a press conference to provide the highlights of the relay.

Amidst tight security the torch will be carried through a 2.3km stretch on Rajpath on Thursday afternoon.

Kalmadi expressed his inability to include all those who wanted to be part of the prestigious run, owing to the restrictions on numbers.

“Some like Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar pulled out for personal reasons. Some like Rahul Gandhi could not accept the invitation. But there has been an overwhelming response from the sportspersons,” said Kalmadi.

Kapil Dev also pulled out saying that he would be out of town. “It is a great honour for an athlete, and am sure the torch relay will be a grand success,” said the Atlanta Olympics bronze medallist, tennis star Leander Paes.

“Olympic torch is a great thing. Taking part in the Olympics, and winning an Olympic medal is the ultimate for an athlete. We are getting ready for Beijing,” said long jumper Anju George.

Cdr. Nandy Singh who had been part of the gold winning Indian hockey team immediately after independence, recalled the simplicity and peace that prevailed in those days.

“There was no such situation of security then. The house was open and anyone could just walk in. Of course, things have changed”, said Nandy Singh.

P. T. Usha also echoed the sentiments of the athletes about the honour of carrying the Olympic flame in the 2.3 kilometre stretch, while world champion trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu said that he was anxious to get his hand on the torch and proud to be part of the journey.

Kalmadi clarified that there would be two attendants moving along with each runner carrying the Olympic torch, to take care of the flame.

The IOA proudly claimed that all the 47 runners chosen by it were sportspersons, while it was a mix of prominent people including sports persons in the list of the sponsors, Lenovo, Coca Cola and Samsung. There will also be five Chinese runners.

The prominent sportspersons invited by the IOA include athletes Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, Jyotiromoyee Sikdar, K. M. Binamol, M. D. Valsamma, boxer Mohammed Ali Qamar, hockey stalwarts Ajit Pal Singh, Balbir Singh Sr., Dhanraj Pillay, Zafar Iqbal, M. P. Ganesh and Harbinder Singh, shooter Jaspal Rana, swimmer Khazan Singh, tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, and Olympic bronze medallist lifter Karnam Malleswari.

The Olympic torch relay is scheduled to cover 1,37,000 kilometres, with the help of 20,000 torch-bearers, spread over 130 days in five continents.

The Olympic torch was scheduled to reach Delhi past midnight on Wednesday from Islamabad, and the relay scheduled for the afternoon in the Capital.

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