Olympic torch on way to Britain

THE Olympic Flame was to arrive in the UK tonight after it was handed over at a ceremony in Athens.

British delegates including the Princess Royal and David Beckham fly back from Greece to RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.

They will attend a special ceremony welcoming the flame, before it is taken on a 70-day relay involving 8,000 torchbearers covering 8,000 miles.

The flame will finally reach east London’s Olympic Stadium and the opening of the Games on July 27.

London was officially handed the flame yesterday in a rain-hit sundown ceremony at the old Panathenaic Stadium, venue of the first modern Olympics in 1896.

The Princess Royal and Karolos Papoulias, the Greek president, sat in ancient thrones that are part of the stadium during the hour-long event.

The flame was handed to the Princess, who was watched closely by other members of the official delegation including London 2012 chairman Lord Coe, Olympics minister Hugh Robertson, London mayor Boris Johnson, Beckham and five British sporting teenagers.