Spanish prince lights Olympic cauldron

Crown Prince Felipe wrapped up a sun-soaked relay through the streets of Madrid today, touching the torch to light an Olympic cauldron in one of the capital’s most symbolic squares.

The mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, passed the flame to Prince Felipe, known for being a keen sportsman himself, having taken part of the Spanish Olympic sailing team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Hundreds of people eagerly waited at one of the capital’s most symbolic squares, the Puerta de Alcala, to catch a glimpse of the lighting and cheer the 30 athletes, sports celebrities and ordinary people who carried the torch.

From Madrid, the flame was heading for Barcelona, where the torch will tour the city that hosted the Summer Olympics in 1992.

The torch is on its way to Greece for the August 13 start of the Summer Olympics. Tomorrow it will travel to Rome.

The three-hour stop in Madrid was staged after the city asked the International Olympic Committee to be considered for the relay in order to promote its 2012 Olympic bid.

The flame – carried in a little lantern – arrived early today from London, aboard a Boeing 747 bearing the legend “Pass the flame, unite the world”.

It was taken in the subway to Madrid’s business and financial centre, where Spain’s waterpolo star and former Olympic gold-medallist Manuel Estiarte carried the flame through the capital under a blistering sun with temperatures reaching more than 30 degrees Celsius.

“It has been thrilling and a real honour for me to carry the torch,” Estiarte said, after passing the flame to swimmer Nina Jivanevskaia, who won bronze in Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

“Hopefully Madrid will have it back to host the games in 2012,” he said.

The symbolic torch passed Madrid’s old quarter, the main Puerta del Sol square and the city’s biggest park, where hundreds lined the route to watch the torch pass and to attend a free concert featuring the country’s top flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and dancer Sara Baras.

For the the last part of the journey two university students participated in a memorial to their deceased friends and other victims of the March 11 train bombings which killed 190 people and wounded more than 2,000 in the capital.