Fed: Call for Australians to carry Olympic torch this year

AAP General News (Australia)
02-02-2004
Fed: Call for Australians to carry Olympic torch this year

Nominations have opened for the relay of 250 Australians who will carry the Olympic
torch in Sydney and Melbourne ahead of the Athens Olympic games in August.

The flame will be lit at Olympia in Greece in late May and Australia will be the second
country it visits.

The flame will arrive in Sydney on June the 4th, where a series of runners will visit
key venues around the city associated with the 2000 Games -- as well as iconic sites like
the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

The following day Melbourne will host the torch, which will pass through sites linked
to the 1956 games, such as the MCG, where Ron Clarke lit the flame almost 50 years ago.

Australian Olympic Committee Secretary-general BOB ELPHINSTONE says the flame will
pass through 35 cities in the world, taking in all the venues which have hosted the Summer
Olympics in the modern era.



Members of the public may nominate outstanding members of the community they believe
are deserving of carrying the torch.

AAP RTV ra/gfr/rh/wjf

KEYWORD: OLY FLAME (MELBOURNE)

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