Invisible flame is burning issue of London Games

LONDON, July 29:
The Olympic flame is nowhere to be seen. The enduring image of the Summer and Winter Games, lit Friday night at the climax of the opening ceremony, is out of sight from the throngs of fans who hoped to catch an inspiring glimpse or take the photo of a lifetime.
The cauldron sits low in the center of Olympic Stadium in London, invisible from the outside. It will be moved today to a corner, and visible in person only to fans lucky enough to have tickets to track and field, which starts Friday.
Until then, if you want to see the Olympic flame, you’ll have to settle for a beauty shot on television, where it looks from above like a small, distant campfire, or the pilot light under the eye of a giant stove.
“It’s unfortunate,” said John Morrissey, who traveled to London on a day trip from Ireland yesterday, the first day of competition. “I didn’t realize you couldn’t see it. I was going to walk around until I saw it. It seems quite poorly thought out.”
“That could have been made more user-friendly,” said Lorraine Payne, an airline worker from London.
The lighting was one of the high points of the opening ceremony. Seven teenage athletes, meant to represent the next generation of British sports, touched flaming torches to 205 petal-shaped copper stems that spread into a ring of fire. (PTI)

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