Boxer Lennox Lewis to carry Torch (From This is The West Country)

Boxer Lennox Lewis to carry Torch

3:02am Sunday 22nd July 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

The Olympic Torch is sure to be in safe hands when it is carried on the latest leg of its tour by former world heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis.

The sportsman will be the last torchbearer of the day, which will see the flame carried through the eastern fringes of London as it journeys through the boroughs of Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Bexley.

The torch will start the day in the centre of the capital with a special photo opportunity on top of the London Eye.

Amelia Hempleman-Adams, who became the youngest person to ski to the South Pole when aged just 16, will hold the flame on top of a capsule on board the giant wheel. Amelia, now 17, is the daughter of adventurer David Hempleman-Adams, who carried out the expedition with her last December.

The relay itself begins at Redbridge Cycling Centre, where the first torchbearer of the day will be Luke Benjafield, 20, from South Woodford, who will carry the flame through a corridor of cyclists from local clubs. He was nominated for the role due to his dedication to the Air Training Corps 241 Squadron, where he has inspired and motivated many cadets to succeed in their flight training.

The torch will then be taken across Fairlop Lake in a boat accompanied by London Youth Games sailors before being taken to Barking and Dagenham where local dance troupe Diversity will carry it.

Havering will host the flame next, where Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang, 30, will take it on to a stage outside the Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch and Olympic rower Ben Hunt-Davies will also be a torchbearer.

Hunt-Davies, who competed in three Olympic Games and won a gold medal in Sydney in 2000, went on to volunteer at the Beijing Games and has been an ambassador for the London 2012 bid.

The torch will then become waterborne for the second time when it is transported across the River Thames in a London Fire Brigade fireboat accompanied by a flotilla of smaller craft.

Once in Bexley, it will be carried to Danson Park, where Lewis will light a cauldron as part of the evening celebrations and pop duo Rizzle Kicks and dance act Twist And Pulse will perform.