Han Ximin
THE Shenzhen leg of the Asian Games torch relay will be run Oct. 18 with 80 torchbearers running a distance of 11.2 kilometers.
The torch relay will take two hours but the route and starting time have yet to be announced.
Shenzhen will be the third city in Guangdong to host the relay after Zhongshan and Dongguan.
According to the Shenzhen organizing committee, half the runners were selected by the committee and the other half were recommended by member organizations and sponsors of the Asian Games.
The runners include Zhu Qingshi, president of the South University of Science and Technology; Wang Shi, chairman of Vanke; and well-known singer Tan Jing.
Ng Chau-pei, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, will be the first to run in Shenzhen, according to a list released by the Shenzhen sports authority.
Kaul Dharmendra, 37, a Briton working at the Vadafone Global Enterprises Ltd. in Hong Kong, will represent the foreign community. Dharmendra joined Vodafone in 2005 and was appointed general manager for Terminals Greater China in 2008. He was recommended by Shenzhen-based TCL Group for having helped form a partnership between TCL communications and the Vodafone Group.
Ke Gangming, deputy chief of the Shenzhen 2011 Universiade Executive Bureau, was invited to join the relay by the Asian Games Organizing Committee in September.
Ke has been involved in sports for 35 years and participated in preparations for the 1990 Beijing Asian Games when he worked at the State sports administration.
Zhang Qingqing, a Foxconn employee, was excited to be chosen.
I feel very lucky and have been preparing for the relay with regular jogging, he said.
The monthlong relay was launched in Beijing on Tuesday. It will also travel to Harbin in Heilongjiang, Changchun in Jilin and Haiyang in Shandong between Oct. 14 and 16 before returning to Guangdong. More than 2,000 torchbearers ranging from six to 100 years old will participate in the relay.
