Flame for inaugural Youth Olympics lit

DEMETRIS NELLAS

AP writer

The Olympic flame for the inaugural Youth Games in Singapore was successfully lit by the sun’s rays at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics last Friday.

Standing in front of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, actress Ino Menegaki, dressed as an ancient high priestess, used a concave mirror to focus the sun’s rays on a silver torch.

The high priestess, along with several other priestesses, proceeded to the stadium where the ancient Olympics were held from 776BC to 393AD and, after a short ceremony based on ancient Greek rites, lit the torch of the first runner, Apostolos Koutavas, 16, also handing him a small olive branch.

Koutavas, a 2010 junior European trampoline gold medallist who will compete in the Youth Olympics, ran a short distance inside the stadium before handing the torch to another runner. The torch was eventually given to Ser Miang Ng, the chairman of the Youth Olympics organising committee.

The flame will not be carried in a relay, as in the Summer and Winter Olympics, but will visit five cities, one on each continent – Berlin; Dakar, Senegal; Mexico City; Auckland, New Zealand and Seoul – before arriving in Singapore for the 14-26 August games.

“We are here... to mark a new beginning for the Olympic Movement,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said at the ceremony. “By combining sport, education and culture in a global forum, the Youth Olympic Games will ... serve as a gateway to a wider world that will improve the world’s best young athletes’ performance on the field of play and in the more important field of life.”

“Combining sport, culture and education is a Greek idea,” Rogge said before the ceremony. “We must take care that young athletes are not overloaded, so we have not been very stringent with qualification standards.”

A total of 3,500 athletes from 205 countries, aged 14-18, will take part at the Youth Olympics. All 26 sports from the Summer Games will be represented, but not all events within each sport. Some sports will be staged in a different format. Basketball, for example, will be a three-on-three, half-court game played over three five-minute periods.

The IOC decided to stage the Youth Olympics in 2007, motivated, in part, by the desire to interest more young people in participating in sports instead of sedentary activities such as surfing the Internet. The Internet, though, is playing a major part in the IOC’s strategy to sell the games.

“Our youth ambassadors are speaking to the youth over short videos shown on YouTube,” said IOC executive director Gilbert Felli, while Rogge added that “the Youth Olympics Facebook page has 3.5 million friends.”

Sergei Bubka, the pole vault world-record holder who also heads the IOC’s Coordination Commission for the Youth Olympics, said they were a “great idea” which he would have liked to have had in his time as a young athlete in the late 1970s.

“This is a great way for the young athletes to learn the power of the Olympic values,” Bubka said.

Innsbruck, Austria, will stage the first edition of the Winter Youth Olympics in 2012. The next Summer Youth Games will be held in Nanjing, China, in 2014.

Coe: London enters 800-metre Olympic back straight

As a former Olympic champion and world record-holder, Sebastian Coe says he is not about to lose the race to get London ready for the 2012 Games.

Coe, head of London’s organising committee, said he is approaching next week’s two-year countdown to the Olympics as one of those 800-metre races he used to win with a perfectly timed kick on the last lap.

“I broke 13 world records,” said Coe, a two-time Olympic gold medallist at 1,500 metres. “I don’t intend to break the 14th by being the first president of an organising committee not to have it ready on the day we’re supposed to.

“I’m more excited every day the games get closer,” he added. “I’m a competitor. Bring it on.”

Coe spoke in a conference call with international media ahead of today’s events marking two-years-to-go until the opening ceremony on 27 July, 2012.

Despite a severe economic crisis and government budget cuts, London organisers remain on time and on budget in a multi-billion-dollar project that centers on regenerating a formerly rundown area of east London into a gleaming Olympic Park.

Coe sees the final two years in athletic terms.

“I think of this as we’re into the second lap,” Coe said in a separate interview with The Associated Press. “We’ve positioned ourselves around the 400-500 metre mark. We’re now entering the back straight.

“In 800-metre running, the killing zone is between 500 and 600 metres. It’s in that space that you create the platform for the finishing line. What we do this year will in large part decide the rhythm, the pace, the symmetry of the games.”

Coe said most of the venues will be completed by next year at this time.

Olympic body freezes salaries for senior managers

The body responsible for building the venues for the 2012 London Olympics says its senior managers will not receive a pay increase this year.

The Olympic Delivery Authority said it will also defer a proportion of bonuses eligible to directors until after the games.

ODA chief executive David Higgins recently topped a list of the highest paid public officials in Britain with a salary of £390,000.

ODA chairman John Armitt says “all directors will be voluntarily taking a pay freeze.”

The total amount spent by the ODA on permanent staff in 2009-2010 came to £21.6 million.

The ODA also announced the completion of the Olympic Stadium’s roof covering.

Vasco stadium will host rugby 7s at the 2016 Olympics

Vasco da Gama’s football stadium will be the rugby 7s venue for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The Brazilian Olympic Committee says Sao Januario Stadium will be renovated to accommodate rugby, which will be returning to the Olympics for the first time since 1924.

The 35,000-capacity stadium will have its pitch and grandstands modernised.

Rio 2016 committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman says there is no timetable for the renovation to start.

Rugby 7s and golf were the most recent additions to the Olympic sports programme for the 2016 Games.

It will be the first Olympics in South America.

Months of intense activity within the Maltese Olympic Committee

Delegates from national sports associations affiliated and recognised by the Maltese Olympic Committee attended for the quadrennial Council Meeting held at the Conference Hall of St Aloysius College, Birkirkara.

Those present were addressed by MOC Deputy President, Julian Pace Bonello who after observing a minute silence in remembrance of sports officials within the local sports community who passed away recently, gave details of what the Maltese Olympic Committee went through since the last council meetings held in March and May earlier this year.

Secretary General Joseph Cassar gave a detailed administrative report of the activities held and organised by the MOC in particular to the success achieved by organising the Level 3 Coaching Course, the Women’s Day Fun Run, the DCO course, the MEMOS module held in Malta, as well as the conference and seminar of the IOC and European Olympic Committees held at the end of May 2010.

Cassar pointed out that this year’s Olympic Day Run held on 27 June along the Bugibba coast road attracted 700 participants who were all presented with the traditional commemorative t-shirt and with the IOC certificate for participation.

Director for Finance David Azzopardi gave details about the contracts being signed with the federations.

Those present were also addressed by Envic Galea in his capacity as Director for Youth. He made reference to the first ever edition of the Youth Olympic Games which will be held in Singapore between 14 and 26 August. Malta will be represented during these Games with Joe Cassar acting as Chef-de-Mission. The athletes present will be having a cultural and education programme during the Games.

Galea also referred to the Island Games held in Azores between 25 and 30 May where swimmer Andrea Agius managed to get a creditable fourth place in the 100m breaststroke final.

At the same time the Maltese Olympic Committee organised the Intermediate Level 3 Coaching Course with the Sammelweiss University of Hungary where representatives from 12 national associations took part.