Olympic torch arrives in Abbotsford

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell will help welcome the Olympic Torch to Abbotsford, B.C., on Sunday.

Campbell will be joined by Abbotsford West MLA Mike de Jong, Abbotsford-Mission MLA Randy Hawes, and Abbotsford South MLA John van Dongen to welcome the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay to Abbotsford.

Sunday is the 101st day of the Torch Relay. Before arriving in Vancouver on Friday to lightthe cauldron at the Olympic opening ceremonies, the flame will make its way through the Lower Mainland from Mission to Horseshoe Bay, and dozens of communities in between.

By Friday, the flame will have reached over 1,000 communities across Canada. Olympic organizers say 12,000 torchbearers will have carried the flame before the Games open on Friday night.

Dal Richards to carry torch on final day

Meanwhile, legendary Vancouver big band leader Dal Richards said he's looking forward to carrying the Olympic torch on Friday, the final day of its 106-day journey across Canada.

Richards, 92, has been jogging twice weekly and swimming 20 lengths about 1,000 metres once a week to prepare for his Olympic feat.He also hired a personal trainer who's putting him through his paces with weights so he can hoist the 1.6-kilogram torch while jogging.

"Not in a 1,000 years did I consider being a torchbearer," said the man who hung out with singer Frank Sinatra during Vancouver's nightclub heyday in the 1940s.

"I think Frank might say, `Are you crazy?"' Richards said of his torch-bearing endeavour.