OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY: Week eight from Chelmsford to Bournemouth

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Posted: Friday 6th July 2012 | 23:34

KINDLED by the rays of the sun in Ancient Olympia, the Olympic torch finally arrives in the UK after a week-long journey around the home of the Games in Greece. Over the next ten weeks more than 8,000 people will carry the torch – from the young to the old, the well-known to the deserving.

FAMOUS FACE: TV Chef and Torchbearer Jamie Oliver carries the Olympic Flame on the Torch Relay journey between Newport and Saffron Walden (Getty Images)

DAY 50 - JULY 7 - CHELMSFORD - CAMBRIDGE

Promising slalom canoeist Zachary Franklin, 20, who is part of the Lloyds TBS Local Heroes scheme, will carry the flag at the London 2012 venue for his sport in Lee Valley.

Also among the torchbearers is Iwan Thomas, who still holds the national 400m record and was part of the 4x400m silver medal winning quartet at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. He will light the ceremonial cauldron in Parker’s Piece, Cambridge while earlier in the day celebrity chef and food campaigner Jamie Oliver will also take his turn with the flame.

KEY TIMINGS - 06:50 - Anglia Ruskin University Chelmsford, 09:00 - Lee Valley Games Venue

MEDALLIST: Two-time Olympic champion Sarah Webb will run with the Olympic flame on day 51 of the London 2012 torch relay

DAY 51 - JULY 8 - CAMBRIDGE - LUTON

The torch will take a new mode of transport today when it goes punting on the River Cam in Cambridge.

It also drops in on the gymnasium training base of Olympic bronze medallist Louis Smith, who has just been confirmed in Team GB, in Huntingdon.

Hatfield House, a prime example of Jacobean architecture, will also feature while among the torchbearers is 91-year old community fundraiser Reg Whittaker, two-time Olympic sailing champion Sarah Gosling, nee Webb, and inspirational youngster Tasha Floyd.

In the five years since she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, Tasha has raised thousands for charity and plans to run next year's London Marathon.

KEY TIMINGS - 06:30 - Cambridge Trinity College, 06:50 - River Cam (punting), 08:30 - Huntingdon Gymnasium, 14:30 - Hatfield House, 15:30 - Hertfordshire University

HONOUR: Naomi Folkard will compete at her third Olympics this summer and will run with the Olympic flame on day 52 of the London 2012 torch relay

DAY 52 - JULY 9 - LUTON - OXFORD

Former F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton will run with Olympic torch just one day after competing at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

"To be selected to do my bit is a real privilege," he said.

“I am so honoured to have been asked to do it. I never in a million years would have thought I’d get to do something so cool.”

The torch will drop in on Bletchley Park, where the work of code breakers during World War II changed the outcome of the war, and Stoke Mandeville Stadium, seen as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.

Blenheim Palace will also provide a historic backdrop to the day's events. Archery's Naomi Folkard, who will compete at her third Games, will be among the torchbearers, as will Pat Pearce, who co-founded the children's charity Dreamflight, which every year takes nearly 200 children on a holiday of a lifetime.

KEY TIMINGS - 06:35 - St Georges Square, Luton, 09:20 - Bletchley Park, 12:45 - Stoke Mandeville Stadium, 15:45 - Blenheim Palace

SPORTING GREAT: Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a four-minute mile, will run with the Olympic torch at Oxford's Iffley Road stadium

DAY 53 - JULY 10 - OXFORD - READING

The torch will start the day in Oxford and drop in on Iffley Road, where Sir Roger Bannister famously ran the first four minute mile in 1954.

Sir Roger carried the Olympic torch before the 2004 Athens Games, when he handed it to Oxfordshire's Tim Henman on the centre court at Wimbledon, and is viewed by some as a good candidate to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony.

Bisham Abbey, where Great Britain's hockey teams are preparing for the Games, is another of today's stops while Team GB's most successful ever Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave takes the torch today in Henley.

Sir Steve is still the favourite to light the cauldron at the Olympic Stadium but other rowing officials running include British Rowing chair Di Ellis.

After Henley the torch will also visit the Olympic rowing venue at Eton Dorney where it will be carried by Sarah Winckless, a former rower who chairs the British Olympic Association's athletes' commission.

KEY TIMINGS - 07:05 - Iffley Road Track, 09:35 - Henley-on-Thames, 10:15 - Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, 11:50 - Eton Dorney Games Venue 16:40 - Ascot Racecourse

GREAT: Sir Steve Redgrave, Britain's greatest ever Olympian, will be among the torchbearers running with the flame in Henley upon Thames (Getty Images)

DAY 54 - JULY 11 - READING - SALISBURY

Kate Howey will carry the Olympic torch through Tidworth today eight years after she was Team GB's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2004 Games in Athens.

The former judo world champion has spent 31 years in the sport and won bronze in 1992 and silver in 2000.

Also among today's torchbearers are Richard Phelps, a four-time Olympian and modern pentathlon bronze medallist at the 1988 Games in Seoul, and fundraiser Wendy Smith.

She has raised thousands for charity by running five marathons in five days, completing a 105-mile ultra marathon in under 24 hours and holding the world record for a marathon completed in fancy dress.

KEY TIMINGS - 13:45 - Winchester Cathedral

DAY 55 - JULY 12 - SALISBURY - WEYMOUTH

Sailing will be a theme of the day with the Olympic torch visiting the Weymouth venue of the London 2012 regatta.

Rodney Pattison, who won gold at the 1968 and 1972 Games and was Britain's most successful sailor until Ben Ainslie, runs in Poole.

Katrina Hughes, who missed out on a Team GB place, will run down Osprey Quay in Portland and other star names are expected to be announced nearer the time

The flame will also visit Stonehenge today and among the other torchbearers are Alan Surtees, the national cycling advisor to the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, and inspiring youngster Sam Giles.

After losing two friends to cancer, he cycled from Land's End to John O'Groat's to raise money in their memory.

KEY TIMINGS - 07:50 - Salisbury Cathedral, 09:50 - Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, 15:50 - Cobb Harbour, Lyme Regis, 18:51 - Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy

INSPIRATION: Iain Weaver, a member of the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes scheme, narrowly failed to make the Team GB boxing squad but will run with the Olympic flame on July 13

DAY 56 - JULY 13 - PORTLAND BILL - BOURNEMOUTH

Iain Weaver, who narrowly failed to achieve Olympic selection, will run with the torch today in recognition of his commitment to train younger boxers in his community.

Among today's youngest torchbearers are Harry Alford, Judge Keeping and Liam Dowden, who are all 12.

The torch will make a stop at the postcard landmark of Durdle Door, a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth, Dorset.

KEY TIMINGS - 10:55 - Durdle Door