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The final rehearsal for the lighting of the London 2012 Olympic torch has gone off without a hitch under bright sunny skies in Olympia, Greece. Priestesses in pleated robes swayed under a scorching sun at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics on Wednesday in the final rehearsal to light the flame that will burn at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Standing in front of the 2,600-year Temple of Hera, an actress dressed as a high priestess used a concave mirror to focus the sun's rays and light a torch. That flame will serve as backup in the unlikely event that clouds hide the sun at Thursday's official lighting ceremony. This has happened only once in recent memory for the Summer Olympics – in 2000, ahead of the late-season Sydney Games.

With her arms raised towards the sky, Menegaki - playing the role of high priestess - then invoked the sun God Apollo in prayer before kneeling to light the torch in just a few seconds as the sun's rays focused on the parabolic mirror. The rehearsal ended with the high priestess handing the flame and a fresh olive branch to the first torchbearer Spyros Gianniotis, a Liverpool-born Greek swimmer who won the gold medal in the 10 km open water event at the 2011 world championships.

On Thursday, Gianniotis, who has a Greek father and a British mother, will run with the flame to the monument where the heart of modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin is buried before continuing and handing the flame over to Alexander Loukos, a Briton of Greek origin. "It's my last Olympics and I'm half English so it's something unique for me, and I'm shaking now. So I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So I'm waiting for tomorrow. It's going to be very very important for me. For my whole career," Gianniotis said. After a 1,800-mile journey through Greece, the flame will be handed to London organisers in Athens on May 17.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

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