All set for Beijing Olympics Torch Relay in Islamabad
'Pakistan Times' Sports Desk

ISLAMABAD: 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 today, 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.(Retd) 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.●