"Asian Flying Woman" to bear Olympic torch in Sichuan leg
23/5/2008 17:26
Li Xuemei, the fastest woman in Asia, has been a volunteer worker setting
up tents for and handing out food to the quake victims since the 8.0-magnitude
tremor devastated her home province of Sichuan on May 12.
The Asian 100m
sprint record holder, born in Deyang, one of the worst-hit areas, will run in
the Olympic torch relay in Sichuan, which has been shortened and rescheduled for
Aug. 3-5.
"The Olympic torch has been added a special meaning after the
natural disaster," said Li, now a PE teacher in the Chengdu Electronic Science
and Technology University. "I will live up to the honor of hoisting the Olympic
flame by helping more people in need."
The Sichuan leg of the Olympic torch
relay has been pushed back for seven weeks in the wake of the earthquake.
"In
support of earthquake relief efforts in Sichuan Province, the Sichuan leg of the
Olympic Torch Relay will be shifted to August 3-5 from the originally scheduled
dates of June 15-18," the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games
(BOCOG) said in yesterday's statement.
"The schedule and route of the relay
through other stops will also be adjusted," added the statement.
The local
organizers of the Sichuan relay told Xinhua today that the relay will be run
with 832 torchbearers over seven cities, including Mianyang, Deyang and Chengdu
which were seriously damaged by China's worst quake in decades.
The Beijing
Olympic torch resumes its domestic journey yesterday after a three-day period of
national mourning for the victims of the earthquake.
The rescheduling of the
relay means that the Sichuan leg will be the last stop before Beijing, which
will see the Olympic flame light the cauldron on August 8.
Xinhua
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