Olympic torch completes relay in Tanzania

　　DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Olympic flame completed its eighth leg of the torch's global tour at this largest city of Tanzania here on Sunday.

　　The relay started its relay in drizzle on Sunday afternoon from the Tazara, the railway station of Dar es Salaam. Tanzanians staged traditional dances like frisk dancing, folk saltation and fire dancing, initiating the city relay.

　　The first torch bearer was Tanzanian Minister of State for Union Affairs in Vice President's Office Mohamed Seif Khatib.

　　The last one to wrap up the relay was UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat Anna Tibaijuka, the first African woman elected by the UN General Assembly to the position of UN Under-Secretary-General.

　　Highlighting torchbearers were John Stephen Akhwari, an athlete in the 1968 Olympics of Mexico City, Uganda athlete Dorcus Inzikuru and Mustapha F. Damiri, a HIV carrier.

　　John Stephen Akhwari, born in 1938, was an Olympic athlete at the 1968 Summer Olympicsin Mexico City. He represented Tanzania inthe marathon. During the race he fell, badly cutting his knee and dislocating the joint. Rather than quitting, he continued running. He finished last among the 74 competitors.

　　When asked why he continued running, he said simply, "My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish." His story is featured in the Beijing 2008 SongHero.

　　Dorcus Inzikuru, born in 1982, is a Ugandan athlete competing in steeplechase. She won the innaugural world title in women's 3000-meters steeplechase, as well as the first Commonwealth Games title in the event.

　　It is the first time for the Olympic flame to come to East Africa and the second time to arrive in Africa after the Athens Olympic torch relay landed in the continent in 2004.

　　Dar es Salaam is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic center.

　　Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: Kinondoni to the north, Ilala in the center of the region, and Temeke to the south.

　　The Dar es Salaam Region had a population of three million. Though Dar es Salaam lost its official status as capital city to Dodoma in 1996, it remains the centre of the permanent central government bureaucracy and continues to serve as the capital for the surrounding Dar es Salaam Region.

　　The relay in Dar es Salaam, the city dubbed "harbor of peace", covered five kilometers and lasted about two hours.