ABAKAN, November 27, 1:33 /ITAR-TASS/. The Sochi Olympic Torch arrives in the Khakass Republic on Wednesday after travelling along the wintry waters of the Yenissei River accompanie by winter swimmers and ascending the highest peaks and cliffs of Krasnoyarsk.
In the morning, in Abakan, the Olympic symbol will be greeted by Head of the Republic Viktor Zimin and City Mayor Nikolai Bulakin. They will accompany the Olympic Torch, bringing it to the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower stations (HPS), one of thr world's largest, either by helicopter, weather permitting, or by car. Weather forecasts say that a heavy fog is probable in Khakassia on Wednesday.
"Torch-bearers will carry the Torch along the dam of Russia's highest HPS. The visit to the HPS will be a unique peculiarity of the Khakass phase of the relay race," Irina Yemelyanova, head oft he information policy department of the republican government, told Itar-Tass.
The Olympic Torch will be carried along the crest of the dam by Hero Rescuer Alexander Barkovsky, as well as by the Bagautdinovs, father and son, power engineers who rescued the victims of the technogenic breakdown on August 17, 2009. The ceremonial relay race will be watched from the HPS observation deck by hundreds of residents of Sayanogorsk and Chereyomuski Settlement where huge monitors have been already installed. "The whole of Khakassia will follow the relay race live from the Yenissei banks," a republicsn govetnment official emphasized.
After a tour of the placed of glory of the Siberian hydraulic engineers, the Symbol of the Olympics will be brought back by helicopter to Abakan where it will be met by 50 torch-bearets. They will carry it thtough the most beautiful places of the city. The length of the relay will be eleven kilometres.
The Olympic Torch will be carried via the Victory Park, past the stele commemorating Liberation Warriors, past the monument to wrestler Ivan Yarygin, the legend of Soviet sporits, and to the Abakan sports complex -- the symbol of future triumphs and sports accomplishments of Khakassia.
The Torch will be also caried through the streets of the city by Tatiana Zyryanova, winner of Student Games, Svetlana Kokova, the mother of many children, and other persons. In the last phase of the relay race here, the Torch will becarried by legendary Khakass bobsled racer Pyotr Makarchuk, a participant in the Salt Lake City Olympics.
In the evening, a ceremony marking the lighting of the Olympic Bowl Flame will be held on Pervomaiskaya (First of May) Square of Abakan, to be followed by a concert programme and a festive firework display at the close of it.
On the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the Olympic Torch relay race will proceed on its way by train from Abakan to Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Region, while part of the Torch in a lamp will set out on a journey the same morning from Krasnoyarsk to the city of Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva Republic.