A team of athletes yesterday set out to carry the Taipei Universiade torch to the top of Yushan (玉山), also known as Jade Mountain, before it heads to the outlying island of Penghu on Thursday next week to begin a LOVE-shaped circuit around Taiwan before its arrives in Taipei for the official opening ceremony on Aug. 19.
Team deputy leader Huang Tien-yu (黃天裕), a student at National Taiwan Normal University, said the group is excited, but also feels the weight of the great responsibility bestowed on them as they carry the torch to East Asia’s highest peak at 3,952m.
Huang is the leader of the university’s mountain climbing club.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
“We understand the duty entrusted to us. Scaling a high mountain is not a competitive event like other sports. It is more like a dialogue with oneself,” he said at the Tataka (塔塔加), a saddle on Yushan in Chiayi County at an altitude of 2,610m.
Team member Chiu Po-yu (邱泊瑜) from National Chengchi University was also excited as the team neared the “completion of their mission,” but worried that the weather might make things difficult for them.
“It is exactly the unknown variables we face that makes our mission of carrying the torch to the designated target even more important,” Chiu said.
After reaching the peak today, the torch is to be reignited in Penghu to launch a nationwide run over four routes in the shapes of the letters L,O,V and E to symbolize the Universiade’s spirit of love and peace.
The letter L is to link Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang — all outlying counties. O is to connect Yilan, Hualien, Miaoli and Taichung. V will, in a heart shape, cover Taitung, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Chiayi, Yunlin, Tainan, Nantou and Changhua. E will bring together Hsinchu, Taoyuan, New Taipei City and Keelung.
The torch will then head to Taipei and travel across the capital’s 12 districts before arriving at Taipei Municipal Stadium on Aug. 19 for the official opening ceremony of the Games, which will run until Aug. 30.
The torch was first lit in Italy on June 20 and arrived in Taipei on Thursday last week.
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