All set for Beijing Olympics Torch Relay in Islamabad Pakistan

Fans waited with bated breath as a grand
rehearsal was conducted Tuesday on the eve of Islamabad leg of the
Torch Relay for this year’s Beijing Olympics.

The
organisers gave final touches to preparations for holding Pakistan’s
first-ever Olympics Torch Relay which will be held within the Pakistan
Sports Complex on Wednesday.

In
case Pakistan’s verdant capital city is lashed with rains again on
Wednesday, the ceremony of Torch Relay, to be studded with fireworks,
will take place within Liaquat Gymnasium, which is part of Pakistan
Sports Complex, said the President of Pakistan Olympic Association, Lt.
Gen. ® Syed Arif Hasan.

Should
the day remain rain-free, the Torch Relay will parade through the
boulevards of sprawling Pakistan Sports Complex before entering the
Liaquat Gymnasium for the final ceremony.

The
President and the Prime Minister of the country will be present to
watch the Torch Relay which will start in the afternoon from Jinnah
Stadium, the main stadium in Pakistan Sports Complex, just across from
Liaquat Gymnasium.

The
entire ceremony will be shown live while strict security arrangements
have already been finalized for the Torch Relay which will be the first
time ever that Torch of any Olympics will come to Pakistan.

Up
to 66 persons will carry the torch, one after the other, from the
starting point to the Liaquat Gymnasium for the final functions which
will culminate in the lighting of the cauldron.

Prominent
among the runners will be former world squash champion Jahangir Khan
and celebrated hockey player Hassan Sardar who was the star of the
Pakistan team that captured the Olympics gold medal at the 1984 Los
Angeles Olympics.

The
Chinese Ambassador in Islamabad, Luo Zhaohui. will also carry the torch
as excitement was gathering momentum to welcome the Olympics Torch
Relay.

The
Torch will arrive in Pakistan from Muscat just after midnight on
Wednesday while the main ceremony will be held at 4.00 p.m. later in
the day.

The
Torch of Beijing Olympics, to be held August 8-24, has already
travelled to Paris, London, San Francisco, Muscat etc. as it treks
across the world on its 137,000 kilometre journey.

The
Olympic flame will have gone to 22 cities in 19 countries before making
it to Beijing in time for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games on
August 8.

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on Apr 16 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry