London organizer Seb Coe runs with Olympic torch

LONDON – The head of the London Games organizing committee has finally got his hands on the Olympic torch.

Sebastian Coe, the best-known face of the games, ran a leg of the torch route on Monday in his home city of Sheffield, northern England.

The 327-yard (300 meter) run counted as barely a jog for Coe, who won 1,500-meter gold and 800-meter silver at the 1980 Moscow Games and repeated the feat four years later at Los Angeles.

Coe, 55, said it was an honor to carry the torch and there was "nowhere else I'd rather be."

The Olympic flame arrived in Britain from Greece on May 18. A total of 8,000 people will carry the torch during its 8,000-mile (12,875-kilometer) journey to the opening ceremony in London on July 27.