体坛英语新闻：Seven teenagers light Olympic Cauldron

LONDON, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Seven teenagers were given the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Games.

Thomas Heatherwick's design of the Olympic Cauldron has been one of the most closely guarded secrets of the whole ceremony.

When the competing delegations arrived in London, they each received a copper petal - inscribed with the name of their country and the words 'XXX Olympiad London 2012'. They carried these petals during the Athletes' Parade at the opening ceremony before laying them down.

The seven young torchbearers, each nominated by a renowned British Olympian, moved towards the center of the field of play and ignited a single tiny flame within one of the copper petals on the ground, triggering the ignition of more than 200 petals.

The Cauldron's long, elegant stems gently rose towards each other and converged to form one great Flame of unity - a symbol of the peaceful coming together of NOCs that is the Olympic Games.

The seven chosen youngsters were Callum Airlie, Jordan Duckitt, Desiree Henry, Katie Kirk, Cameron MacRitchie, Aidan Reynolds and Adelle Tracey, aged between 16 and 19.

The Cauldron will be moved to take pride of place in the Olympic Stadium within the eyeline of competing athletes - echoes of its location at Wembley for the London 1948 Games.

At the end of the Games, each team will take their petal home and the London 2012 Cauldron will cease to exist. Like a flower that only blooms for the during the competition, it's a temporary representation of the extraordinary transitory community that is the Olympic Games.