Dame Ellen MacArthur & Shirley Robertson will help light the way.
Torchbearer highlights for tomorrow (Saturday, 14th July 2012) include: Celebrated female sailors Shirley Robertson and Dame Ellen MacArthur will carry the Olympic Flame on the Isle of Wight.
On Saturday 14th July, the long awaited London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay will travel through the following Island communities: Totland, Yarmouth, Carisbrooke, Newport, East Cowes and close Day 57 relay in Southampton. Shirley Robertson will carry the flame through Newport and a little later Ellen MacArthur will take up the task on it’s final leg in East Cowes.
Saturday Olympic Flame Relay Highlights will include:
12.44pm - The Flame will arrive in Yarmouth.
1.09pm - The first Torchbearer on the Island will be Henrietta Gould, 16, from Fareham and she will carry the Flame in Totland. Henrietta was selected through the Coca Cola campaign for her commitment and enthusiasm to sport.
1.39pm – David Ouston, 46, from Isle of Wight, will carry the Flame on the Needles Chair Lift as it travels down to Alum Bay beach.
David was selected through the Lloyds TSB campaign for his work in setting up the Street Pastors scheme on the Island, which offers help to people in need.
At the bottom he will hand the Flame to Laura Carlisle, 17, who will then carry it back to the top.
Laura was nominated through the LOCOG public nomination campaign for her dedication and commitment to netball. Laura will be following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Peter Roland, who carried the Olympic Flame in 1948.
Shirley Robertson will carry the Flame in Newport. After two previous Olympic Games appearances in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, Shirley proved beyond doubt her sailing pedigree by winning gold in the Europe class at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. However it was four years later, at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, that she made history by becoming the first British women to win Olympic gold medals at consecutive Games. Building upon this, Shirley made the switch successfully from interviewee to interviewer and forged a media career as both a presenter and commentator. Alongside this Shirley is actively involved in charity work, acting as a Patron for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and as a mentor in the Champions for Schools: Winning Scotland programme.
3.35pm – The Flame will visit Osborne House in East Cowes. Hannah Brear, 33, from Isle of Wight, will hand the Flame to Annette Ablitt, 51, from Portsmouth.
Hannah was selected through the Lloyds TSB campaign for her work as a teacher. Annette was nominated for the care that she gives to her husband who suffers from Huntingdon’s disease. She also teaches synchronised swimming and has helped raise £9,000 for charity.
Dame Ellen MacArthur will carry the Flame in East Cowes. She first hit the headlines in 2001 when she raced single-handedly non-stop around the world in the Vendée Globe when only 24 years old, finishing second in one of the hardest events in offshore sailing. Her status as one of the world’s greatest ever offshore sailors was confirmed in 2005, when after 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, 33 seconds at sea, she became the fastest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed.
4.25pm – The Flame will leave the Isle of Wight from East Cowes.
5.30pm – The Flame will arrive in Southampton.
An evening celebration will take place in Mayflower Park featuring a wide variety of entertainment staged by LOCOG and the three Presenting Partners of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay – Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung – with support from Southampton Council. The show will start at 4pm and the event will finish at 7.45pm.
The line-up includes music from Wretch 32, a dance troupe who will provide a unique fusion of street performance, theatre and sport and dance act Twist and Pulse. There will also be entertainment from local acts Woodlands Community School and Art Asia Dhol Drummers staged by Southampton City Council.
Towards the end of the two-hour show, the last Torchbearer of the day in Southampton – Gillian Rose – will light a celebration cauldron on stage at the event which will enable the Olympic Flame to be seen by the audience.
On Saturday if you are unable to get out and about, you can watch live video coverage of the torch relay as it sails across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.
Click on this Live Video Feed: www.london2012.com/torch-relay/video/live.html provided by the BBC or more direct link here: www.bbc.co.uk/torchrelay and follow the relay across the Island from Totland, Alum Bay, Yarmouth, Carisbrook, Newport and East Cowes.
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