Olympic torch

London 2012: Olympic Torch arrives in London today

Sarah Shaffi, Olympics editor Friday, July 20, 2012
1:11 PM

The Olympic Flame arrives in London tonight, ahead of the final week of the Torch relay.

The Flame will reach Tower Wharf at around 8pm today. A Royal Marine Commando will then abseil 180ft from a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter carrying the Flame in a lantern.

Two torchbearers will carry the Flame around the Tower of London, and will be welcomed by Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman.

The Flame will be handed to General the Lord Dannatt, Constable of the Tower of London, and will stay in the Tower overnight.

Tomorrow the Torch relay will begin in Greenwich Park, visiting locations including the Meridian Time Line and the Cutty Sark.

It will also be taken onto the roof of The O2.

Newham then welcomes the relay, with the Torch being transported on the Woolwich Ferry before heading to Central Park for the Mayor of Newham’s show.

On Saturday afternoon it goes to Tower Hamlets, and then to Hackney, before heading through Waltham Forest to the evening celebration in Chestnuts Field.

Among the torchbearers in Waltham Forest will be Jane Farrier, a coach at Orion Harriers. the 49-year-old, who became a grandmother for the first time last week, was nominated by a number of parents of children who train at the club.

She said: “When you’re a volunteer you do something because you have a passion for it. For it to be recognised and people take their time to nominate you makes you feel good.

“My grandson Archie George Bellamy will be there, that’s so special to me.”

On Sunday Amelia Hempleman-Adams, 17, who aged 16 became the youngest person to ski to the South Pole, will hold the Flame on top of a capsule on the London Eye.

It will go through the London Boroughs of Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and Havering, before being taken in a London Fire Brigade Fireboat across the Thames to Bexley.

The final torchbearer of the day in Bexley will be Lennox Lewis.