Charged with the Olympic flame

The members of the New Zealand team are (left to right): Mijo Wilson, Elizabeth Matthews, Tim Brown, Davi Jea and Rosanna Blong. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Five New Zealanders flew out of Auckland yesterday on a 30-hour trip to Italy, where each of them will run about 300m.

The team members - selected from more than 500 nominations - are representing New Zealand at the Olympic Torch Relay, in which more than 10,000 people will run to mark the start of the Winter Olympics in Turin on February 10.

The contingent includes a retired scientist, a school teacher, a student, an IT specialist and an iceskater. They will all have to complete a dash of about 300m carrying the Olympic torch.

Tim Brown, a former Massey University microbiologist, took a scientific approach to his training, fabricating a torch and filling it with lead shot for weight.

Then he did training runs double the distance he will have to in Italy.

"There's no point in doing just the requirement ... You need to be able to enjoy it."

For IT specialist Davi Jea, who came to New Zealand as a nine-year-old Vietnamese refugee, the trip is a chance to repay the country that gave her "everything".

Dunedin student Mijo Wilson says the trip will be a taste of the Olympics to which he intends returning as a hockey umpire "in 10 years' time".

Rosanna Blong, an Auckland ice skating coach, wants to go simply so she can come back and motivate her students, while representative curler Elizabeth Matthews - a PE teacher at Auckland's Birkenhead College - wants to do it to prove she can.

"For an old girl like me ... [it shows] just because you are old, it doesn't mean you can't succeed."

New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary general Barry Maister said the group epitomised the Olympic spirit.

"The torchbearers selected are Kiwis who emphasise what makes us alike, not what sets us apart."

* The Queen's Baton - the Commonwealth equivalent of the Olympic torch - is due to arrive in Auckland, from Norfolk Island, on Wednesday.

The Queen's Baton journey is the world's longest relay, travelling 180,000km and visiting all 71 Commonwealth nations. It is the first time any Games relay has visited all member nations.