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The following is issued on behalf of the 5th East Asian Games Planning Committee (EAGPC):
The Hong Kong 2009 East Asian Games (EAG) 100-day Countdown and Torch Relay will be held on August 29 (Saturday) to welcome the Games in December and to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Peopleˇ¦s Republic of China.
To facilitate the smooth running of the relay, the 5th EAGPC held a briefing session today (August 14) for all the torchbearers and announced the torchbearer allotment.
Attending the briefing were the Chairman of the 5th EAGPC, Mr Timothy Fok; the Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Vincent Liu; Assistant Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Miss Olivia Chan; the Chief Executive Officer of 2009 East Asian Games (Hong Kong) Limited, Mr Johnny Woo; Adviser of the Hong Kong 2009 EAG Torch Relay Mr William Ko; and Superintendent of Hong Kong Police Mr Ronald Ip.
Mr Ko briefed the torchbearers on important areas that they should heed when taking part in the Torch Relay, such as mode of running, the proper posture in holding the torch and procedures for relaying the torch. These were demonstrated by two uniformed torchbearers.
The Torch Relay will start at Kowloon Park Piazza at 3pm on August 29, pass through Austin Road, Nathan Road, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, Avenue of Stars, across Victoria Harbour to Expo Drive East, Harbour Road, Expo Drive to reach the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island about 4.30pm. By then, the EAG flame will be transported to the Tseung Kwan O TVB City where the last torchbearer will finish the last leg of the relay and the countdown to the Hong Kong 2009 EAG show will begin. The torchbearer allotment is shown in the annex.
The Torch Relay, with the theme "Light the Way to the EAG", marks the vigour of the EAG athletes and young people and signifies the spreading of the EAG messages throughout the community, schools and among the younger generation.
The 65 torchbearers consist of 22 representatives from the National Sports Associations of the EAG competition sports, 18 representatives from the 18 District Councils, one representative from the principal contributor, 12 representatives from the diamond partners, two representatives from the EAG volunteers, three representatives from youth groups, three EAG Ambassadors and four EAG theme song singers.
The Hong Kong 2009 East Asian Games will be held between December 5-13. More than 3,000 elite athletes from nine East Asian countries / regions will vie for 262 gold medals in 22 sports. The number of sports and medals are the most in EAG history.
Ends/Friday, August 14, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:11
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