Beijing’s Double Torch Rehearsal

In 654 days time the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008 (8 August to 24 August 2008) will be opened with the traditional lighting of the flame in the Olympic stadium in the Chinese capital. It is an occasion which will also mark the end of the traditional Olympic Torch Relay, the flame having been kindled by the sun’s rays in a sacred grove in Ancient Olympia, Greece, at the start of its long journey to China.

Yesterday (22), with 40 days to go until the opening of the 15th Asian Games, Doha 2008, (1 - 15 December 2006) Beijing underwent an unofficial dress rehearsal for this Olympic ritual as in similar fashion the flame of the Asian Games was carried along a section of the Great Wall of China. Beijing is the fifth of twenty-three stops on a 50,000km journey for the Asian Games Torch which began on 8 October in Doha.

More than 3000 torchbearers will carry the flame through 15 countries and regions before it returns to Doha, where it will light the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony on 1 December. The 15th Asian Games flame continues its journey through China on 25 October when it travels to Guangzhou, host city of the 2010 Asian Games.

Though in ancient Greece the flame was a sign of purity and was an important component of most festivals and games, the first Torch Relay of the modern Olympic era didn’t take place until the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, while the first Asian Games Torch Relay was held at the third Games in Tokyo in 1958.

Practice makes perfect, and only last Friday (20 Oct) in Beijing the 2008 Olympic hosts also launched the Chinese section of the Torch Relay for the Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled (FESPIC Games). During the two week and 6000km journey which the Torch Relay will follow, the organizers are taking the opportunity to campaign for bettering sporting facilities for disabled people in China.

The 9th FESPIC Games will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 25 November to 1 December 2006.

Chris Turner for the IAAF