Page 56 - br-june-2021

June 2021

MOMENT TO SHINE

“I would like to nominate you as an Olympic
torchbearer Bob. Are you up for it?” My friend
Adrian Stuart whom I had known for many years
and who had been our club treasurer was asking
the question one day last summer. “Of course I
would Adrian. I’d love it!

Imagine, carrying the torch and being albeit a
small part in making history. It would never come
around again in my lifetime and for a short
period of time I would be part of it!
The nomination was made and I gave it no
further thought. Surely with all those worthy
people to select from, there would be only a
small chance that I would get chosen? And then
it happened. An email from the London 2012
Torch relay team told me that I was now on a shortlist of 28,000 people (some
shortlist!) from which 2012 of the 8,000 torchbearers would be selected. My
nomination would be reviewed by one of 12 regional panels and I would hear
from them in early December whether I had been offered a place.
My excitement was building but it was still only a 1 in 14 chance and again there
must be others with a greater claim than mine? Then in early December I got a
further email telling me that I had been given a conditional offer of a place.
Fantastic! Security checks on my past would be needed so would the speeding
fine I picked up in 2001 count?
In the middle of March confirmation came that I had a place in the Olympic
torch relay and my “Moment to Shine”. I was to keep the news to myself over the
weekend until the official launch on the Monday.
Interviews with the local press and radio followed and the word spread amongst
my many friends in the local community, but where would I be running? My hope
was that it would be at Puddletown near where so many people knew me and
would turn out to cheer me on.
th
In early May I was told that Abbotsbury was to be the place on Thursday 12 . July,
a good half hours drive away. Looking at the list it struck me that no one had
really sat down with a map and made a real effort to place runners in their
immediate locality. I know it would be a logistical challenge and you cannot
please all of the people all of the time, but there seemed no logic to some of the
placings. When I met other local torchbearers on the beach at Weymouth for a
publicity shoot a few weeks later, there was a young man from Portsmouth who
was down to run in Weymouth!

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