Holywood Runner Tells Of 'Shock' At Olympic Cauldron Role

The County Down teenager who lit the Olympic cauldron was "in complete shock" when she heard about the massive role she would play in Friday night's opening ceremony.

Katie Kirk from Holywood was one of seven young athletes who were only told the day before the ceremony of the massive role they would play when the torch was handed on to them, the next generation, in a striking visual metaphor.

Katie, who runs for the Lagan Valley Club in Belfast, was personally nominated for the role by Olympic ambassador Dame Mary Peters.

She told the Mirror newspaper: "It was only the day before that Danny Boyle came and told the seven of us personally what we were going to be doing.

"He just walked up and introduced himself and calmly told us that it was going be very dramatic, that we would run round the Stadium with the torch in a group and then light the Cauldron.

"We all just looked at each other in complete shock, we couldn't believe what we were hearing.

"He kept saying, 'Thank you for coming', but we were all thanking him because we were all so honoured."

She admitted she had to fight nerves on the day.

She said: "The main thing was I didn't want to mess up. What they wanted us to do kept changing, but on the night we had someone in our earpiece talking to us throughout which really helped calm us down. The timing was perfect through the whole show."

(NE)