BRITISH champion rower Sir Steve Redgrave started the Olympic torch relay in London yesterday, taking it out of Wembley Stadium on the London leg of its journey to Beijing.

Eighty athletes, entertainers and dignitaries will relay the torch along a 48-kilometer route from Wembley Stadium to the O2 Arena in Greenwich.

Among those taking part in the relay are marathon world record holder, Paula Radcliffe, 18 schoolchildren and public figures such as newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald and musician Vanessa Mae.

Of Chinese-English descent, Emily Giles will also run."Being selected to help carry the Olympic torch for the Beijing Games would mean so much to me. With roots in China on my mother's side and England on my father?ˉs, I feel I can symbolize the links between these games and the next,"said Giles.

Double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes will run the last stage of the route to complete the relay before lighting the Olympic cauldron in front of 5,000 spectators.

On its journey through the city the torch will be carried on foot, on an open-topped double decker bus and by light railway past some of London's most iconic sights.

Despite bitter temperatures and sleet, Notting Hill Gate in west London greeted the Beijing Olympic torch with a mini carnival reminiscent of the annual carnival that draws over one million revelers.

As the host of the 2012 Olympic Games, the London relay is designed to cover the longest route.

The route would pass London landmarks including Wembley Stadium, Notting Hill Gate, Hyde Park Place, Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, the British Museum, Chinatown Arch, Trafalgar Square, Downing Street, Bridge Street, Waterloo Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and Greenwich.

Also, London police yesterday foiled an attempt by a person to grab the Olympic torch during the relay. The person was among 25 people who tried to disrupt the relay and who were detained for public order offences, police said. The unidentified person was immediately taken away by police after he failed to grab the torch.

London has been host of the Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948.(Xinhua)