The Sydney Morning Herald Breaking News Mandela outshines the torch By Kendall Hill 2:05PM, Sep 07 In its 92-day odyssey buoying spirits around Australia nothing has managed to dim the allure of the Olympic flame, until today. At Yarralumla shortly after dawn, where the Governor-General was to farewell the flame from Canberra and send it on its final journey to Sydney, Sir William Deane produced a special guest whose strength of spirit proved more than a match for that of the torch. Dr Nelson Mandela, the Nobel leaureate and former South African president, emerged from Government House arm in arm with Sir William and swiftly eclipsed the torch. Dozens of invited memebrs of the diplomatic corps immediately rose and honoured Dr Mandela with a standing ovation. And indigenous performers paid homage to him after their performance with one, Ms Serena Williams, seizing the opportunity to plant a kiss on her hero's cheek. "It was the greatest moment of my life," she said afterwards. "He is such a powerful, strong, beautiful black man." After the torch was ignited in preparation for champion softballer Sally McCreedy to run it down Dunrossil Drive, Dr Mandela accepted an offer to hold the Olympic flame - briefly elevating it back to centre stage before it set off towards Queanbeyan and the black leader was mobbed by Canberrans. The flame has now left Canberra and will be the focus of lunchtime celebrations at Cooma before heading to Thredbo, where 1997 landslide survivor and popular local Mr Stuart Diver will ski it down Crackenback tonight, flanked by 100 flare runners. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
