Sydney, September 12: At his peak, Daley Thompson was used to being the world's number one, but on Tuesday he was only number 233 of the day and loving every moment as he joined the "humbling" experience of the Sydney Olympic Torch Relay. From being something of a torch-bearer for British athletics in his prime, Thompson was here carrying the flame for the Olympic movement. "This is just great fun," Britain's 1980 and 1984 Olympic decathlon gold medallist said before receiving the flame in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta, the 233rd runner of the day to carry the torch. As is tradition, the Olympic flame was lit earlier this year in Greece, near the site of the ancient Olympics, and has since wended its way around the globe, being passed from runner to runner. It arrived in Sydney on Monday, and will continue on its processional way for another three days until it is used to light the cauldron in Stadium Australia at the climax of Friday's opening ceremony. A total of 11,000 people will have taken part inthe torch relay by the time it is completed.Thompson is just one of a range of celebrities and sporting figures to form part of the relay. "I was asked to do it about a year ago, and they finalised the offer just a couple of weeks ago," said Thompson, now 42 and active as a coach to English first division soccer club, Wimbledon, as well as an advisor to Erki Nool, the Estonian decathlete and contender for a medal in Sydney. Thompson was accompanied on his brief leg of the relay by a 15-year-old local schoolboy, Peter Kimpton, who had won his place in the event by writing an essay on the meaning of the Olympics. The crowds in Parramatta were four or five deep, with some standing on the roof of the Woolpack Hotel, and young boys hanging from building rafters, to get a better glimpse of this leg of the relay.In the gathering dusk of early evening, the torch seemed to burn brighter when held by the man once hailed as the world's finest all-round athlete. "It's always great to be involved with the Olympics," Thompson said. "This does not compare with competing, it's just different. "It makes you feel very humble look at the people out there, there's millions along the route."
