IT was the once in lifetime event when the Olympic Torch was passed hand to hand, weaving across the UK, uniting communities as it went and igniting the flame of excitement for the Games.
This summer marks ten years since the London 20212 Olympics and we look back in the Echo archives at the day when the Olympic torch relay came to Southend, Hadleigh, Basildon and Grays.
On Friday July 6 2012 the torch relay arrived in Southend to Rochford Road and Prince Avenue on route to the first of 29 specially selected torchbearers who carried it down Prince Avenue towards the Cuckoo Corner roundabout.
The torch was then relayed down Victoria Avenue and past the Civic Centre to Victoria Gateway before turning left onto Queensway. The convoy vehicles continued to Southchurch Avenue but the torchbearer turned right into Chichester Road and alongside the Victoria Shopping Centre to the High Street where Mark Foster carried the torch to Pier Hill.
It then headed east along Marine Parade to a specially constructed stage on City Beach where there were 2,000 schoolchildren and choir members performed a specially commissioned to mark the occasion. The flame departed Marine Parade and carried west along the seafront to Chalkwell.
It was then relayed into Chalkwell Avenue and west along London Road, eventually crossing the borough boundary into Hadleigh, home of the London 2012 Mountain Biking event where it was ridden by mountain bike and onto Benfleet and arrived at Rayleigh Weir before travelling to Basildon Sporting Village.
It was walked along the side of the swimming pool where the Japanese swimming team were situated and thenout onto the athletics track. There was then a break before it continued to Uppermayne. The relay torch was handed to Marc Grayston, chief instructor at Maru Karate Kai school, who posed with then Basildon mayor Mo Larkin.
After leaving Basildon it continued its journey to Grays and then onto to Brentwood and to the final leg of theFriday’s relay at Hylands Park in Chelmsford.
The UK torch relay lasted 70 days with around 8,000 people carrying the torch a total distance of roughly 8,000 miles from Land’s End in Cornwall all the way to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford
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