The Olympic flame in Ingushetia

Pavel Tsoroyev, Nazran. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

The Olympic Torch Relay passed through Ingushetia. The symbol of the Olympics arrived in the republic from Grozny. 17 torchbearers, famous athletes and veterans of sport, took part in the relay which started in Magas and finished near the Consent Tower; the Olympic cauldron was placed on the top of the tower.

The first torch was borne by the fivefold boxing champion Ahmed Kotiyev. 83-old Girey Barhanoyev, a veteran of sport, also participated in the relay. Leila Albogachiyeva was among torchbearers, she conquered five highest mountains in the world. She planted a flag of the Sochi Olympic Games on the top of Everest. After the Games she plans to climb the highest mountain of the planet again. “Ingushetia began its relay on May 20th, 2013, when I planted an Olympic flag on the top of Everest. This summer I will plant a flag with signatures of winners of Sochi-2014 there,” Leila Albogachiyeva noted.

The most responsible mission – to light the Olympic cauldron on the top of the Consent Tower – was entrusted to the hero of Beijing-2008 Rahim Chakhkiyev. He went upstairs inside the tower and then a tower crane took him to the cauldron. When flame mounted up, fireworks colored the sky. “It was an exciting moment. I felt the same at the Beijing Olympics,” Rahim Chakhkiyev said.

Boys from the Mountain Cadet Corps built a human chain leading to the Consent Tower; students held posters; representatives of ethnic-cultural autonomies of Ingushetia made the event bright and colorful; artists and young talented people sang and danced. Even members of the People’s Assembly of Ingushetia couldn’t help dancing.

Airplanes and an air-balloon with flags of Russia, Ingushetia, and the Olympic Games were flying above spectators. Several torches were given to the republican museum. The symbol of Sochi-2014 will flame on the top of the Consent Tower till the end of the Games.