UK - OLYMPICS 2012: Flame lit on Mount Olympus lights Olympic torch on British soil.

Record ID: 330753

  • Title: UK - OLYMPICS 2012: Flame lit on Mount Olympus lights Olympic torch on British soil.
  • Date: 19th May 2012
  • Summary: HELSTON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MAY 12, 2012) (REUTERS) FLAGS CROWDS PLANE LANDING PLANE TAXIING CLOSE TO CROWD WIDE OF CROWD AND PLANE TWO LYNX HELICOPTERS IN AIR CROWDS WAVING FLAGS AND CHEERING CAMERA CREWS WIDE OF MEDIA AND AEROPLANE IN BACKGROUND CLOSE UP PRINCESS ANNE LEAVING PLANE WITH SAFETY LAMP CONTAINING FLAME SOCCER STAR DAVID BECKHAM AND LOCOG CHAIRMAN SEBASTIAN COE LEAVING AEROPLANE WIDE OF PLANE AND DELEGATION WALKING DOWN STEPS WIDE OF MEDIA AND PLANE PRINCESS ANNE AND DELEGATION MOVING ONTO PAVED AREA CLOSE UP OF FLAME IN LANTERN PRINCESS ANNE HANDS LANTERN OVER TO GAMES STAFF CROWD SOCCE STAR DAVID BECKHAM LIGHTS OLYMPIC TORCH FROM LANTERN FLAME CROWD WATCHING BECKHAM IGNITES CAULDRON WITH TORCH WIDE OF REPORTERS, CAULDRON AND AEROPLANE BECKHAM WALKING BY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID BECKHAM SAYS: "I think people seeing the flame arriving in the country, I think it's going to light people up literally you know. I think the fact that now it's going to be taken all around the country by 8,000 torch bearers you know, that's a special moment for the people and for the country so - the excitement begins" BECKHAM RUNS TO CROWD TO SIGN AUTOGRAPHS BECKHAM SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS PRINCESS ANNE TALKING TO CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (English) SCHOOL GIRL EMILY GASTERSON SAYS: "It's pretty much that sport is coming into great Britain after so long". (SOUNDBITE) (English) SCHOOL BOY KYLE FRASER SAYS: " I think it's quite a good thing that we are not going to see it, it's not a very common event so, once in a lifetime, definitely" (SOUNDBITE) (English) WOMAN RESIDENT SAYS: "I think it's going to pass within 90 percent of most of the country isn't it, so I think you know, people that perhaps haven't felt very involved up till now, when they see this and see the torch hopefully they'll feel part of it and start getting excited and start getting behind team GB to do well." LYNX HELICOPTER ACROBATICS-PULLS BACK TO DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NICK CLEGG WITH OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WINNER BEN AINSLIE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NICK CLEGG SAYS "I think it's really you know going to bring it home to people that the Olympics is happening and now's the time to really get out there and line the streets,I think it's very exciting." CUTAWAY OF CAMERAMAN AND BIG SCREEN WITH AEROPLANE ON IT (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER NICK CLEGG SAYS: "The torch is going to crisscross the country for 70 days it's going to be within a very close distance of the vast, vast, vast majority of people in the country. Remember the last time that the torch landed on British soil was over 60 years ago when it landed on a Dover beach having crossed a war-torn Europe and that time actually it rained so heavily the torch went out, hasn't happened so far so I think the omens are very good."
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAC9EVMCCQXVU31TZZW3Z8FE6ZZ
  • Story Text: The Olympic flame landed at an airstrip on the south-western tip of England on Friday (May 18) carried in an especially painted British Airways jetplane.
    Invited spectators waved flags and cheered as "The Firefly" touched down and taxiied alongside them.
    A delegation composed of Princess Anne, president of the British Olympic Association, David Beckham and chairman of LOCOG Sebastian Coe carried the flame, enclosed in a safety lamp, down the aircraft steps. Then Beckham lit an Olympic torch from the flame in the lamp, and in turn lit an Olympic cauldron.
    Arouind eight thousand people will run with the Olympic torch flame during the next 70 days as the torch is processed around Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
    Beckham, who has been involved in Olympic delegations since 2005 and has hopes of captaining a British team in the Olympic soccer tournament, said that the torch procession should signal that the London Olympics are starting soon.
    "I think people seeing the flame arriving in the country, I think it's going to light people up literally you know. I think the fact that now it's going to be taken all around the country by 8,000 torch bearers you know, that's a special moment for the people and for the country so - the excitement begins," he said.
    Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister, was in attendance while Prime Minister David Cameron is in the United States.
    Clegg recalled that the last time the Olympic Games was held in Britain was in 1948.
    "The torch is going to crisscross the country for 70 days it's going to be within a very close distance of the vast, vast, vast majority of people in the country. Remember the last time that the torch landed on British soil was over 60 years ago when it landed on a Dover beach having crossed a war-torn Europe and that time actually it rained so heavily the torch went out, hasn't happened so far so I think the omens are very good," he said.
    The Olympic Games start on July 27.
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