Torch Relay in Ningbo to see minor changes

(NINGBO, May 20) -- The Ningbo leg of the Olympic Torch Relay will resume on Thursday, keeping the original program, except for a slight modification to the route and a reduction in duration by 30 minutes, organizers announced on Tuesday.

The relay will involve 118 torchbearers and start from the Beilun Phase IV Pier of Ningbo Port as originally planned. Within the Ningbo urban zone, the number of torchbearers will be reduced to 42 and the distance will be shortened to 4.2km from 6.5km.

Meanwhile, the relay segment at Hangzhou Bay Trans-Oceanic Bridge will see an increase in runners and distance. There will be 56 torchbearers rather than the planned 33, and the distance will extend to 5.6km from 3.3km. The first runner in this section will be torchbearer No. 63 rather than No. 86 as the original program had intended. The Olympic flame will be handed over to Jiaxing City at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday.

The torchbearers will take turns running in the original sequence along the 12.8km-route, but vehicles used in the relay will operate a distance of 159.7km, 2.3km shorter than planned. The relay will last six hours and 15 minutes, which is 30 minutes shorter than the original course, according to Lao Jinlong, deputy director of the Ningbo Municipal Sports Bureau.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) decided last Sunday to suspend the Olympic Torch Relay from Monday to Wednesday to honor victims of the May 12 earthquake, which has caused a large number of casualties in Sichuan Province in southwestern China.