More than 10 hours before the Beijing Olympic flame arrived in the Turkish largest city of Istanbul, torchbearers in Istanbul said Wednesday that they were excited over Thursday's memorable moment of the torch relay.
The sacred flame of the Beijing Olympics will arrive at Istanbul international airport in the early hours on Thursday to start the second leg of the unprecedented global torch relay. The first leg has been held in Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty.
In Istanbul, a total of 78 Turkish athletes, artists and media people, along with two diplomats from the Chinese embassy in Turkey, will carry the Olympic torch through the city, which is the only one in the world located on two continents -- Asia and Europe.
The Istanbul route is 17.8 kilometers long and every torchbearer will run a stretch of some 200 meters on average.
At a pre-relay preparation meeting held on Wednesday, these torch bearers received their white-and-red relay uniform.
Tekin Okan, a blind goalball player and the only blind torchbearer in Istanbul, told Xinhua that he is tremendously happy and excited to be a part of the Beijing Olympic torch relay.