Krasnodar is getting ready to take up the Olympic torch relay

Kuban leg of the Olympic torch relay will become one of the most extended one in the county. Three days before start of Winter Games in Sochi on February 4 at 8.14 p.m. the Olympic cauldron will be lighted on the main square of Krasnodar.

— The Olympic torch relay is an event of paramount importance which must be prepared in the first-rate fashion. We have to give careful consideration to the details of this All-Russian scale event beforehand and turn Krasnodar leg of the relay to be memorable and spectacular festival of culture and sport, — Head of Regional center Vladimir Evlanov said.

Inception meeting concerning preparations to the conducting of the city relay leg of Olympic torch «Sochi-2014» was held in Krasnodar administration under the chairmanship of the city Head.

All-Russian relay of Olympic torch will arrive in Krasnodar on February 4, 2014 and will be conducted at streets and squares of Regional center in the course of the whole day. This leg of the relay will make 55,7 kilometers at length. Grand ceremony will be participated by 290 torchbearers and over one hundred thousand viewers. The Olympic torch will take to the roads of Kuban by a combine harvester thresher in the company of horse cavalry of Kuban Cossack Army.

Transportation cortege of the relay will consist of 21 vehicles: organizers buses, torchbearers accompanying vehicles, automobiles of the State traffic safety inspectorate, emergency medical services, security service and journalists. The route is thoroughly considered and planned minute be minute. Two and a half thousand policeman will maintain order during Krasnodar leg of the relay.

It is planned that in the morning of February 4 the Olympic torch will be met by Krasnodar citizens on a bridge across Kuban River at the boundary with Ust-Labinsk district. Then the torch will be carried to shopping and entertainment center «OZ Mall»: the torch welcoming ceremony will take place here. Afterwards torchbearers will run to Pushkin square and therefrom the torch will be brought down the Krasnaya Street to Theatre square, where the main festivities «Live Site Sochi 2014» will happen at night. Ceremonial lighting of the Olympic cauldron will be conducted at the same place at 8.14 p.m.

All necessary preparatory measures as to reception and movement of the Olympic torch, improvement of streets and squares, conducting of informational and advertizing campaigns were discussed in the course of the meeting.

All residents and guests of the city are invited to watch the relay progress at streets of Krasnodar and entire torch travel. Viewers and torchbearers will be provided with hot meals stations, Olympiad’s sponsors will hand Krasnodar citizens baseball caps branded with symbols of «Sochi-2014».

The Olympic torch relay Sochi-2014 will become the largest relay in the history of Olympic movement and will beat a number of records. The flame will be carried through 2014 settlements; it will visit Elbrus and for the first time ever — North Pole and the International Space Station.

The relay started on October 7 in Moscow and will finish on February 7, 2014 at the official opening ceremony of Winter Games. This relay will beat duration (123 days) and distance (over 40 000 km) records of the Olympic Movement. The relay participated by 14 thousand torchbearers will go through all 83 capitals of RF constituent entities.