SHENZHEN residents have received a rare opportunity to have a hands-on role in the Beijing Olympic Games next year, as the process to select torchbearers from the city began yesterday.
Shenzhen will recruit 126 torchbearers to join the torch relay, which will run through Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou and Shantou in Guangdong Province, the provincial sports bureau said at a press conference in Guangzhou yesterday.
Chen Guanyu, a well-known philanthropist and volunteer in Shenzhen, was nominated as a possible torchbearer by Lenovo, one of partners of the torch relay.
Of the 504 torchbearers to be selected from Guangdong, 124 will come from Guangzhou, with 127 from Huizhou and Shantou each.
Guangdong will also select 189 escort runners for the Games, who will mainly comprise middle school and college students. Of that number, 48 will come from Shenzhen and Guangzhou each, 47 from Shantou and 46 from Huizhou.
Escort runners run alongside the torchbearers and assist them in transporting the Olympic Flame. A spokesman for the Shenzhen sports bureau said yesterday detailed plans were yet to be unveiled, and he had received many calls from locals after organizers of the 2008 Olympics began the torchbearer selection program Saturday.
Interested local residents can call the bureau at 8322-1500 for information, or log onto www.lenovo.com.cn or www.icoke.cn.
A total of 21,880 torchbearers and 5,000 escort runners will be recruited for the 137,000-kilometer, 130-day relay across five continents.