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Saturday, 23 November 2024
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Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-03-13Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] First torchbearer for BeijingIn a break with tradition, 20 straight years reserved for track-and-field athletes, the Hellenic Olympic Committee on Thursday selected Greek Tae Kwon Do champion Alexandros Nikolaidis as the first Torchbearer of the upcoming 2008 Olympic Torch relay.Athletes competing in athletics events have inaugurated the last five successive Olympic Torch Relays, while nine altogether have been the first torchbearer for past Olympic Games, making athletics the most strongly represented sports discipline for this distinction. The first Olympic Torch Bearer was a young athlete named Konstantinos Kondylis, when the inaugural Torch relay from ancient Olympia was instituted in 1936. The Olympic Games and the part played by the torch bearers made a huge impression on Greeks of that time and Kondylis became a local celebrity, with his picture appearing on boxes of matches that circulated soon afterward. During the Athens Olympic Games of 2004, the first Torchbearer was Greek javelin champion Costas Gatsioudis. Caption: A file photo dated Thursday, 25 March 2004, shows 2004 Olympic Torch Bearer Costas Gatsioudis with the Olympic flame during the eponymous ceremony in ancient Olympia. ANA-MPA / ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU. [02] SYRIZA to open nat'l con'fThe aims of the first nationwide conference of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), which begins on Friday, were outlined on Thursday by a member of SYRIZA's secretariat, Rudi Rinaldi."We pledge to fight alongside the people to overturn neoliberalism," Rinaldi stressed, presenting the agenda for the conference taking place on March 14-16 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Neo Faliro, on the Athenian coast. According to new Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (Synaspismos) leader Alexis Tsipras, whose party is far and away the largest and most influential member in the SYRIZA Parliamentary coalition, the conference beginning on Thursday is "an important stage in an interesting experiment that has begun some time ago, bringing together political groupings of the Left as well as unaffiliated citizens that wish to join forces in order to change the present situation." CAPTION:ANA-MPA file photo of Alexis Tsipras Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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