MOSCOW, October 6 (R-Sport/RIA Novosti) – The head of the Russian Olympic Committee urged people “not to pay any attention” to an incident when the Olympic flame was briefly extinguished Sunday as it was carried through the Kremlin in the opening stage of a nationwide relay.
“I wouldn’t devote any special attention to what happened,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko. “There was a misunderstanding because a vent in the torch wasn’t opened properly and the flame wasn’t at the intensity [it was supposed to be].”
The flame went out when it was being carried by Shavarsh Karapetyan, a famous Soviet era swimmer, shortly after President Vladimir Putin took part in a televized ceremony marking the arrival of the flame in Russia. When Karapetyan began beckoning for help, it was relit with a cigarette lighter by an official standing nearby.
In the coming days and months, the flame is due to travel 65,000 kilometers across Russia, including up the country’s highest mountain and to the North Pole, before arriving in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in February.
At the start of every day of the relay, the torch will be lit from an “authentic flame” that has come directly from fire in Greece's Ancient Olympia and which will be held in 30 different lamps, said Chernyshenko.
No comments :
Post a Comment