The Youth Olympic Flame Arrives In Host City Singapore

The arrival of the Youth Olympic Flame in Singapore was celebrated with great fanfare this evening by an exuberant 3,000-strong crowd at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Kent Ridge Campus.
After a 15-day journey around the world, the President of Singapore, Mr S R Nathan, lit the cauldron for the first time in Singapore under a shower of fireworks, marking the start of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame (JYOF) in the host city.
Celebrating the Flame arrival were Mr Teo Chee Hean, President of the Singapore National Olympic Council and Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister; Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports; Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Minister of State, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports; and Mr Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and Ministry of Transport.
More than 700 performers put up a spectacular line-up of mass display performances which traced the Flame’s journey from Olympia to Singapore.  Dancers were dressed in colourful costumes derivative of the cultures of each city on the route, expressing the spirit of international friendship in the Youth Olympic Games.
The celebration also coincided with the NUS Students' Union (NUSSU) Rag Day 2010, and NUS students put up a parade of six thematic floats, each creatively representing a city which the Youth Olympic Flame has travelled to.  The Youth Olympic Flame was lit in Olympia, Greece on 23 July, and travelled to Berlin (Germany), Dakar (Senegal), Mexico City (Mexico), Auckland (New Zealand) and Seoul (Republic of Korea) before arriving in Singapore.
Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee and Chairman of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC) Mr Ser Miang NG arrived aboard an open-top vehicle with the Youth Olympic Flame in a safety lantern.  The torch was lit and handed to President Nathan for the lighting of the cauldron.  The Youth Olympic Flame blazed in the cauldron against the backdrop of 700 performers forming the Olympic rings on the university field, amidst cheers from the crowd.
The Singapore Leg of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame
The Singapore leg of the Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame will began on August 7, starting a six-day torch relay with 2,400 torchbearers doing the honours of carrying the Flame around the island.
The Flame will travel through all five community districts in Singapore on 7—13 August (with a break on 9 August), passing Singapore's bustling financial district, cultural centre and the new downtown before reaching the waters of the beautiful Marina Reservoir and the Float@Marina Bay - the venue for the Singapore 2010 Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
The Flame's journey will culminate in the torch being brought to the Float @Marina Bay in Singapore, the world's largest floating stage, on 14 August 2010.  It will ignite the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games cauldron as part of the Opening Ceremony, signifying the start of the Games. Once lit, the Flame will continue to burn brightly throughout the 12 days of the Games until the Closing Ceremony on 26 August 2010.
Day One, 7 August: The Central District
On the first torch relay day, the Flame journeyed through the northern part of Singapore’s central district, covering Toa Payoh, Braddell, Thomson, Bishan and Ang Mo Kio, passing through the scenic MacRitchie Reservoir along the way.
Singapore’s Minister for Education Ng Eng Hen will light the torch at CHIJ Toa Payoh Secondary School and hand it over to the first torchbearer, Tay Shi Pei, 16, a student of the school.
Other torchbearers for the day include Elim Chew, 43, social activist and founder of popular teenage streetwear chain 77th street; winner of the Outstanding Youth in Education Award 2010 Muhammad Fadylla Rashiman, 27; MediaCorp actress Joanne Peh, 27; and 17-year-old S Supraja, an Indian classical dancer who organises her own concerts for charity.  Profiles of selected torchbearers are available at Annex 1.
In the evening, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will light the community cauldron with the Youth Olympic Flame at Nanyang Polytechnic, kicking off Singapore’s very first JYOF community celebration.  Two thousand Singaporeans are expected to join in the festivities.
The schedule for the JYOF on Saturday, 7 August is at Annex 2.  The route, full list of torchbearers and ‘live’ tracking of the Flame via GPS are available at www.singapore2010.sg/jyof.