|
Olympic flame reaches peak
08/05/2008 09:59 - (SA)
Beijing - The Olympic flame has reached the top of the world.
Live television footage showed a Chinese mountaineering team holding up a specially designed torch along with Chinese and Olympic flags on Thursday on the top of Mount Everest.
"One World, One Dream," team captain Nyima Cering yelled as his torch was lit on the final icy incline leading to the peak, repeating the slogan for the Beijing Olympics. "We have lit the torch on top of the world," another climber said.
The 19-member team, dressed in red parkas emblazoned with Olympic logos, broke camp at 8 300m before dawn and reached the top of the 8 850m mountain a little more than six hours later.
The climb up the world's highest peak was a spectacular feat that organisers of the Beijing Olympics hoped would underscore China's ambitions for this August's games.
But the climb had been criticised from the outset because of China's often harsh rule over Tibet - where Everest is located - and the relay drew even more intense scrutiny after Tibetans across western China erupted in anti-government protests in March.
Organisers hope the dramatic image of the torch atop Everest will counter some of the damaging publicity from protests that marred the international leg of the torch relay.
'We made it'
The Olympic flame had been carried up to the world's tallest peak in a special metal canister. As the team neared the summit, they used a wand to pass the flame from the canister to the torch, which had been designed to withstand the frigid, windy, oxygen-thin Himalayan air.
The climbers could be heard struggling for breath as five torchbearers each inched a few metres before passing on the flame to the next person. A colourful Tibetan prayer flag lined the path and fluttered in the wind.
The final torchbearer, a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo, stood silently on the peak with her torch while other team members unfurled small Chinese and Olympic flags. They then clustered together, cheering "We made it," and "Beijing welcomes you."
The head of the Everest leg of the relay, Li Zhixin, was overcome with emotion as the flame reached the top. "It was so difficult," he said, choking on tears while speaking from the television studio that state broadcaster CCTV set up at Everest base camp.
Organisers had said the torch would be taken up sometime in May, depending on the weather. The climbing team set out in the dark early on Thursday to take advantage of calmer morning winds and firmer footholds on the packed ice before the heat of the sun causes it to shift, CCTV announcers said.
The climbing team reached the summit exactly three months before the August 8 opening ceremony of the games.
The Everest flame is separate from the main Olympic torch, which on Thursday was on the opposite side of China, in the southeastern province of Guangdong, the heart of Chinese manufacturing.
Unfolded amid secrecy
The relay leg scheduled for Thursday, in the boomtown of Shenzhen, was postponed until the afternoon to allow for the Everest ascent.
The main torch was not taken up Everest because of weather concerns. A delay due to bad weather would have thrown the schedule off for the whole torch relay.
The main flame will cross every region and province of China, returning to Beijing on August 6, two days ahead of the opening ceremony.
The Everest leg has largely unfolded amid secrecy, in part to deter protesters who have criticised the event as symbolising China's domination over Tibet. China persuaded Nepal, a longtime recipient of Chinese aid, to keep climbers off its side of Everest for the first half of May to prevent surprise protests.
Aware of the criticisms, Chinese officials and state media have largely depicted the climb as a demonstration of the Olympic spirit.
"We may come from different backgrounds, but we are moved by the same things," CCTV anchor Zhang Quanling gushed during the live 6-hour broadcast. "What moves us comes from the peak of Mount Everest."
|
News
