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Torch relay to pass peace flame over 20,000 kilometers

by Junji Akechi

"World Harmony Run," a global relay to Moscow through the Eurasian Continent, embarked from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on April 24. The runners will travel nearly 20,000 kilometers passing the torch from hand to hand over the next five months.

Alexander Nikiforov from Russia, 40, the first runner of the relay, left from in front of the Cenotaph for the A-bomb Victims with a flaming torch lit from the embers of the park's Flame of Peace in his hand. He was accompanied by 15 other runners, all Hiroshima citizens, as the lively sound of a marching band composed of students of Minami Kanon Elementary School played along.

The relay has been organized by a planning committee comprising volunteers and others in many nations. In Japan, 26 runners from nine countries including Japan, Mongolia, and India, will run and pass the torch from person to person, arriving in Nagasaki on April 28.

After that, runners will pass the torch as they travel through a total of 12 countries, including South Korea, China, and nations in Central Asia, arriving in Moscow on September 27.

(Originally published on April 25, 2010)

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