2008-04-22 07:01:07 -
The Jakarta leg of the torch relay, 16 Km drive will now be held at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, central Jakarta, will start on Tuesday afternoon. Eighty torchbearers will take part in the event. The sacred flame of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on early Tuesday April 22 arrived in Indonesian capital of Jakarta, the 14th leg of its global torch relay.
A chartered plane carrying the flame, landed on the Halim military airport at local time 12:05 a.m. from Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia. Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of
Olympic Games (BOCOG), carried the lantern of the flame and walked off the plane.
On arrival at the airport, the flame received a warm welcome by a cheering crowd, among whom are Vice President of the Indonesian National Sports Committee Hendarji Soepandji and other senior sports officials as well as more than 100 workers from Chinese companies in Indonesia.
Chinese ambassador to Indonesia Lan Lijun also came to the airport to welcome the flame of the Beijing Olympics, which is scheduled to be held this August. The Jakarta leg of the torch relay, which will be held at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, central Jakarta, will start on Tuesday afternoon. Eighty torchbearers will take part in the event.
Malaysians from all stratas particpated in Olympic torch run which came to city second times first Tokyo OLympic 64.They inspite of heavy rain came out to greet the runners with applause and cheers. Torch run with groups of pro-Chinese supporters all along the route were carrying banners with slogans like 'Keep Politics and Violence out of Olympics' and 'China Boleh'.
A short but colourful ceremony attended by Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Abdul Hakim Borhan and vice-president of Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee Jiang Xiaoyu kicked off the relay at Dataran Merdeka at 2pm.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tuanku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Jaafar was given the honour to be the first torchbearer after the flame was lighted.
A relay meticulouly planned enroute landmarks like Parliament House, National Museum, Railway Station, National Mosque, KL Tower and KLCC.
Torch completed its journey with eighty torchbearers local personalities, and former and current top Malaysian athletes took part in the relay, former national badminton players Datuk Punch Gunalan, the Sidek brothers Razif, Jalani and Rashid, world number one squash player Nicol David and former top swimmer Nurul Huda Abdullah all graced the occasion.
The torch procession also proceeded to the KL Tower, where it was passed to Angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor at the top and relay ended with the Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah, the last runner, lighting the cauldron at the Esplanade area in KLCC.
The Olympic flame next destination to Jakarta, and was flied for the next leg of the relay which will be held today.Olympic torch of Kuala Lumpur realy is meticulously planned with sense of responsibility to get it completed with complete success and people enjoying the run and Chinese working in Kuala Lumpur walk the tour of the torch.
Olympic torch relay further destination includes visit to Jakarta in Indonesia, April 24 in Canberra in Australia, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam before returning to Beijing for the Games in August.
