Olympic torch lights up Yorkshire cities

The Olympic Flame will arrive from Greece exactly one year from Wednesday and the relay will kick off in Land’s End, Cornwall, and continue for 70 days until the opening ceremony of the Games on July 27, 2012.

Organisers have also announced details of how the public can apply to be one of 8,000 torchbearers.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said: “The Olympic Flame will shine a light right across every nation and region of the UK and showcase the very best of who we are and where we live.

“The first locations on the route confirmed today give a flavour of the reach the Olympic Torch Relay will have around the UK and how extensive the opportunity for starting to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games will be.”

The relay aims to go within an hour’s travel time of 95% of the population - and there are also plans to take the Olympic Flame to Dublin.

From the South West, the flame will be carried through the West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland the North East, Yorkshire, the East Midlands, the East of England and the South East before arriving in London ahead of the opening ceremony on July 27, 2012.

In Yorkshire, the relay will first pass through Hull on June 18, York on June 19, Leeds on June 24 before reaching Sheffield - home town of London 2012 chairman and two-time Olympic 1,500m champion Lord Coe and World champion heptathlete Jessica Ennis - on June 25. It will then visit Cleethorpes on June 26.

Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said: “The Olympic Torch Relay brings London 2012 to the doorsteps of the UK giving everybody the chance to celebrate the London Games. It’s a magnificent showcase for the country and a chance to mark the achievements of inspirational people in our communities.”

There will be no international torch relay - the International Olympic Committee decided to make it a domestic event only after the controversial Beijing torch relay in 2008 where protesters used the event to demonstrate against China’s human rights abuses.