FLICKERING FLAME : Olympic Torch Goes Out in Relay

An Olympic torch flickered out on the first leg of the torch relay, and the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee plans to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“It’s bad luck to have it happen anytime,” said a spokesman for SLOOC on Monday. “But on the first leg--ouch! Everyone’s hopping mad.”

More than 21,000 runners are carrying the Olympic flame 2,605 miles across South Korea to Seoul for the Sept. 17 start of the Olympics. Each runner gets to carry the torch 1 kilometer (0.62 miles). Each torchbearer is escorted by 10 runners, a police car, an official vehicle and a jeep. The jeep carries three Olympic flames, from which the torches are lit. A vehicle behind the runners is designated to extinguish the flame of the used torch after the flame has been passed along.

The torch arrived in the resort of Cheju Island from Greece on Saturday. After the arrival ceremony, the flame was given to the first carriers, a 12-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.

The two youngsters were mobbed by photographers and television cameras eager to get pictures of them as the first official carriers of the torch on South Korean soil. They were delayed by the horde of photographers, and the flame went out.

Olympic officials said that a new torch was quickly lit from the Olympic flame, and the youngsters continued their run.