by Graham Tutthill

gtutthill@thekmgroup.co.uk

Dover Channel swimmer Sam Jones has been announced as one of the people who will carry the Olympic torch in July. Sam is one of three East Kent swimmers chosen to take part in the torch relay.

Sam swam the Channel in 2008. Her first attempt was unsuccessful, but she battled against the odds to make a second attempt, which she completed in 16 hours 34 minutes. She has also been a member of a Channel swimming relay team.

She will carry the torch through Upstreet, near Canterbury.

National champion Sophie Waller, 13, who is a pupil at St Edmund's Catholic School, will be one of those carrying the torch through Dover, and Abby Taylor-Baptie, who swam the Channel aged 16 and lives at Woolage, will be taking part in Thanington, on the outskirts of Canterbury.

Also running in Dover will be Keirun Baker, 16, (pictured left) who is a prefect at Harbour School, Dover, while Tracy Evans, 37, a community leader from St Margaret's, will be one of the torch bearers through Sandwich.

Other Dover people selected to carry the torch include Graham Hutchison, Jamie Clark and Sam Lucas.

Each torchbearer will wear a white and gold uniform, and they will each run 300 metres.

It has also been revealed that the torch will go to Samphire Hoe, the nature reserve which was formed on the area created on the coast by spoil from the Channel Tunnel, and it will be carried to Dover Castle.

The torch will arrive in Dover on Wednesday July 18. It is expected to come ashore at the Prince of Wales Pier - exactly how has not yet been revealed - and will then be taken along Snargate Street, York Street and Priory Road to Ladywell, Maison Dieu Road and up to Dover Castle. It will then return to the Market Square via Castle Street before being taken to the seafront for the evening celebration event.

The next day it will start from the end of Deal Pier just before 8.30am and be carried down King Street, through the High Street precinct to Sondes Road, up to Prince of Wales Terrace, along Deal Castle Road, Gilford Road, Park Avenue and London Road to Sholden.

It will arrive at Sandwich at 9.12am and go from Deal Road to New Street, past the Guildhall to Harnet Street, Strand Street and over the Toll Bridge into Ramsgate Road and on towards Thanet.

Full story and more details of the torchbearers and the route in this week's East Kent Mercury and Dover Mercury, Thursday, March 22.