Blazing a trail: The Olympic Torch in Scotland

For those of us who grew up at a time when the host cities were Mexico City, Munich, Montreal and Moscow, the Olympic Games seemed marvellous yet remote. They happened a long way off, and were accessible only via television. This year it’s different, with the first home Games since 1948. And although London can still feel remote, from many parts of Scotland, the Olympic Torch Relay will bring a flickering flavour of the Games to just about every corner of the country.

Having begun its journey throughout the British Isles on Scottish Cup final day, 19 May, the flame has so far visited the south-west of England, Wales, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland. Today it heads into the Republic of Ireland, tomorrow it returns north to Belfast, and then on Friday it starts the Scottish section of its journey in Stranraer.

From there it will progress up into Ayrshire, and visit Ayr and Kilmarnock, among many other places, before arriving in Glasgow that evening. Along the way, in Rutherglen, the torch will be carried by Mike Kerr of the British wheelchair rugby team, and by rower Katherine Grainger, who has won silver medals at each of the past three Olympics and this summer is determined to go one better.

For Kerr, competing in the Games will be the culmination of more than a decade’s involvement with wheelchair rugby, which he took up after a diving accident on holiday left him with spinal damage. He had hopes of being included in the squad for the Beijing Paralympics in 2008, but did not make the final cut. This time round, he has made it, and will hardly have time out from a busy training schedule to carry the torch.

“I live in Glasgow, train in London and play for the Bulls in Middlesbrough,” Kerr says. “It’s a hectic lifestyle I’ve had to adapt to because there’s no competitive wheelchair rugby team in Scotland at the moment.

“I didn’t make it into the final squad for Beijing, but this time round I’m obviously a lot more experienced and have had a lot more game time. Competing at the Olympics will mean everything to me. It’s the pinnacle.”

Grainger will travel from her base in Buckinghamshire to carry the torch close to her birthplace in Glasgow, but says she would have been prepared to make a far longer journey: “I’d come back from the other side of the globe if it meant I got to run with the London 2012 Olympic Flame.

“To me with every Olympic Games I have been to, the flame has become more and more important because of the way it brings everything together and encapsulates the history of the Games.”

Kerr and Grainger are just two of the hundreds of Scots – and around 8,000 people in total – who will take a direct part in the relay as torchbearers. The whole operation requires the involvement of thousands more organisers, including a group known as the Flame Followers, who entertain the crowds in each community before the relay arrives.

While the organisers of the relay hope that large numbers will line the streets every step of the route, those at some of the venues along the way will also have the chance to join in various celebrations at the end of each day’s journey. More information about those celebrations, including a full list of the places that will host them, is available both from the Bank of Scotland website, www.bankofscotland.co.uk/olympictorchrelay, and from the main official site of the Games, www.london2012.com. Everyone who comes along to the evening celebrations will have a chance to win tickets for the Olympic Games thanks to Bank of Scotland, the presenting partner of the torch relay. All you have to do is visit the Bank of Scotland site at the event and vote for one of the local youth projects which are in contention for a £5,000 grant from the Lloyds Banking Group Community Fund.

Four projects from the areas which surround the evening celebrations have been shortlisted for the grant, and the two which receive most votes will win one each. At the same time, everyone who votes will go into a draw to win four tickets for an Olympic event to be announced.

The torch’s first day in Scotland will end with what is expected to be one of the biggest evening celebrations, in George Square in the heart of Glasgow. Saturday’s journey will begin at just after 7am on a tall ship outside the city’s Riverside Museum, and end almost 12 hours later in Inverness. Television presenter Jenni Falconer will join the relay just before the end of the day, and there will be an evening celebration in Eden Court.

On Sunday, the torch will complete its journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats, but only after it has flown to Kirkwall and Sumburgh. It takes to the air after John O’Groats too to get to Stornoway, where the following day’s relay begins. Passing through Inverness again, it ends up on Monday evening in Aberdeen.

The journey on Tuesday 12 is from Aberdeen to Dundee, then on Wednesday the route is St Andrews to Edinburgh. On Thursday morning the flame heads south from the capital, and after going via Peebles, Selkirk and Galashiels is scheduled to cross the Border around 4.30pm.

From there the torch will head down the east coast of England for several days before cutting across country to Cumbria. It will then return to Scotland exactly a week after leaving, on Thursday 21 June. That day will begin in Dumfries, and the relay will pass through Annan, Eastriggs and Gretna before again crossing the Border.

But the final departure of the torch across the Border will not end Scottish involvement in the relay. Sir Chris Hoy, who won three gold medals in Beijing four years ago, will carry the torch in Manchester, where he lives and trains, just two days later, on Saturday 23 June.

Then the following month, the British No 1s in the men’s and women’s tennis rankings, both of whom are Scottish, will join in close to their homes. Elena Baltacha will carry the torch in Kent on Thursday 19 July, then Andy Murray will be the torchbearer four days later in the London Borough of Merton.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon is within Merton, meaning the streets of the borough are very familiar to Murray. The Wimbledon men’s final is on Sunday 8 July, so who knows? – the world No 4 might even be running the streets as the first British winner of our home Grand Slam since the 1930s.

And even if Murray comes up short, there will be another chance this year for him to win a title at Wimbledon, as the grounds will also play host to the Olympic tennis tournament.

The torch relay itself does not have long to go after Murray has taken part, as there are just four days between his run in Merton and the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the other side of London. It has yet to be announced – indeed, perhaps yet to be decided – who will have the honour of being the final torchbearer, the one who will light the Olympic Cauldron that will burn throughout the Games.

‘I may well be grateful each runner only carries the torch a few hundred metres…’

SCOTSMAN sports reporter Stuart Bathgate will carry the Olympic Torch on Thursday, 21 June, its last day in Scotland. The day will begin in Dumfries, with the torch going through Annan and Gretna before crossing the Border and travelling to Carlisle, then finishing up in the evening at Bowness-on-Windermere.

“I’ve been warned to expect an early start, so I may well be grateful that each runner only carries the torch for a few hundred metres,” Bathgate says. “But in reality it’s more likely that the whole thing will seem to be over in seconds, and I’ll be standing there, having passed over to the next runner, wishing it was still me.

“I was invited to take part by Bank of Scotland, and it’s obviously a real honour to be allowed to play a small part in the relay.

“Having said that, I expect to meet quite a few other torchbearers who are far more deserving of their invitation than me, and hopefully when I write about the day for The Scotsman I’ll be able to talk about their experiences as well as my own.”