Tango city lights up with the cries for Argentina

BUENOS AIRES: The Olympic torch continued to burn on Friday (early Saturday morning Beijing time) in Buenos Aires, the seventh and only Latin American leg of its 33-day epic journey. Thousands of spectators got a glimpse of the fire for the first time in their city.

Spanish Primera Liga player Andres, D'Alessandro and former US open tennis champion Gabriela Sabatini, 2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist in tennis women's double Paola Suarezs were leading the 80 torchbearers.

The Olympic flame was greeted in great passion in the "Tango City". A grand opening ceremony in the Ecologic Reserve unveiled the pageant relay. Artistic Tango show by Inaki Urlezaga, composed by members of the National Symphony, started a day of cheering and applause.

The military band from the patricios infantry played the national anthems of China and Argentina.

Thousands of onlookers held mobile phones, digital cameras and digital videos, trying to preserve the trace of the Olympic flame. Cheering, screaming and applauding were permeating all around the city.

"I'm very proud (as a torchbearer), maybe because I know how important the Olympic Games are," said five-time Olympian cyclist Juan Curuchet, who is competing for his sixth time - the most number of times for a cyclist - in Beijing this summer.

The 77th torchbearer was 77-year-old former soccer player Gong Jinyuan, now working as an expert on bone injuries in Buenos Aires, who still plays soccer every week.

"It's like a dream for me, an ordinary person, to carry the sacred Olympic flame, especially in this nation of soccer," Gong, who is from Southwest China's Sichuan province, said.

In the second-ever Latin American Olympic torch relay city after Rio de Janeiro of Brazil in 2004 and the only Spanish-speaking city along its way to the Games in Beijing, the torch was carried from Constanera Sur to the Equine Club through beautiful boulevards and scenic spots, including the Plaza de Mayo and Avenida 9 de Julio, widely acknowledged as the world's widest street, with the iconic Obelisco at its center.

Many Chinese immigrants watched the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Buenos Aires' streets as it passed through its 13.8 km tour that started at 14:36 local time (17:36 GMT).

The Chinese immigrants gave Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital, a special flavor as they held red flags and cartels with slogans supporting the Olympic Games.

Some 60,000 Chinese people live in this South American country, most of them in Buenos Aires and the metropolitan zone, where there are some 5,000 markets managed by Chinese natives.

Argentina's Trade Chamber gave them a free day so they could watch the Olympic torch relay, which passed for the first time in Olympic Games' history through Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri hailed the success of the torch relay. "The Olympic Games is a moment of brotherhood, of life time sharing, that feed us and made us better as society. We hope to be at the high of the expectations," the mayor said.

Julio Cassanello, president of the Argentine Olympic Committee (COA), who is in Beijing to attend the 16th conference of national and regional Olympic committees, said on Thursday: "We will make the torch relay a festive event for all in Buenos Aires and in Argentina."

"The Olympics is about peace of the world, not violence. We will make the torch relay in Argentina a festive event," said the COA president.

Following a celebratory ceremony at the Equine Club, the relay departed before midnight local time and was transported to Tanzania's Dar Es Salaam.

China Daily-Agencies

(China Daily 04/14/2008 page6)