City’s leaders hope for Olympic torch parade through streets

The Olympic Flame, the enduring symbol of the Olympic Games, is to be paraded around the UK in the run-up to the 2012 Games in London, and organisers are being urged to include Hull on the route.

The flame, which represents peace, unity and friendship, will be lit in Olympia, Greece, in a traditional ceremony and taken on a short relay in the country before arriving in Britain on May 18, 2012.

It will then be carried by 8,000 torchbearers on a 70-day journey across the UK before making its way to London for the opening ceremony.

Organisers have pledged to bring the torch within a one-hour journey of 95 per cent of the population, and civic leaders in Hull are hopeful of seeing it paraded through the city’s streets.

The Hull Council portfolio holder for image and culture, John Robinson, said: “It’s obvious that excitement is building up across the country and Hull is a very sporting city so we are no exception to that.

“It really would be excellent to get the torch here. The city is starting to make a very good impression nationally and internationally for staging big events, like the Freedom Festival, and it is such a friendly and sporting city it would be absolutely appropriate for it to come here.

“If it does the welcome it would get would be as friendly as anywhere else in the UK.”

Organisers of the 2012 Games say the relay will “help shine a light on the best of the UK – from dynamic urban areas to places of outstanding natural beauty, as well as sporting and cultural landmarks”.

In Hull, where preparations are well under way to stage sporting events and encourage greater participation in sport on the back of the Games, the decision on where the torch will be taken is keenly anticipated.

A briefing note on Hull’s 2012 programme said if the city’s bid to host the torch relay is successful, it would represent a “very significant moment”, and the event could “easily” attract 45,000 people or more.

As well as playing host to a professional football team, two professional rugby league clubs and a professional ice hockey team, Hull is equally vibrant at amateur level in many sports and in football has one of the biggest Sunday leagues in Europe.

Its thriving amateur boxing scene will be recognised on July 23 during the 2012 Open Weekend, when St Paul’s Amateur Boxing Club, in conjunction with the council, hosts an international event at the city hall.

Details have yet to be confirmed, but the Amateur Boxing Association of England is considering bringing its elite boxers to Hull to take part.

Discussions are ongoing regionally with Welcome to Yorkshire, and bilaterally with Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford and York, on how maximise the possibility of hosting Olympic teams at pre-Games training camps.

In a bid to boost participation in Hull, a “come and try it” sports day will be held on June 1 at East Park and the Woodford Centre featuring almost 20 diverse sports, including archery, fencing, golf, rowing, kayaking, and “British military fitness”.

“Young and old people will get a chance to try something they have never done before,” Coun Robinson said.

Sport England and Puma Ltd have also agreed to fund a series of table tennis events this summer under a programme called Ping Hull.

The torch and relay were important elements of the cultural festivals surrounding the Olympic Games of ancient Greece.

During the Games, a sacred flame burned continually on the altar of the goddess Hera, and heralds were summoned to travel throughout Greece to announce the Games.