Hadleigh Olympic Torch moves to Basildon

After travelling through Hadleigh, briefly passing through Benfleet, the Olympic Torch arrived at Rayleigh Weir. At the handover from Torchbearer 100, Bharat Thakrar, he kicked his heels and then lit the torch of Torchbearer 101, Shaowen Huang. This can be seen at the BBC Torch website.

It was carried by Shaowen Huang from Beijing. According to the BBC Torch feed he is 45 and started the Yushu Earthquake Disaster Fund after the earthquake hit Tibet on the 14th April 2010. The fund has since donated millions of Yuan towards the reconstruction of the area.

Mr Huang transferred the flame to the Lantern to be moved on to Basildon. He then spent a considerable time allowing people to take photographs of him with the torch. An official on the film can be heard saying repeatedly “Last photo, last photo”, in an effort to get the show rolling again.