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Carrying a torch for the Olympics Staff and wire reports KLAMATH FALLS - Hundreds of people braved the snow and pre-dawn cold Tuesday to greet the 2002 Olympic torch and watch runners carry the flame through town. "It was just incredible," said Ashland resident Elaine Delsman, one of the torch runners. "It gave you such a feeling of unity with all these people across the United States. It just kinda chokes you up to realize that you are a part of this one flame that has traveled all across the country. "You can't be an athlete but you're still part of the Olympic games, and to be able to hand the torch over to someone else from the valley was really great, too," she said. Delsman, 56, was one of two dozen torch bearers - seven of whom were Jackson County residents - to show up at 3 a.m. to run a quarter of a mile Tuesday, part of a five-mile relay loop through town. Delsman handed the torch off to Central Point High School sophomore Amee Elliott. "It was great," Elliott said. "It felt really good. It was really short but very much an honor - lots and lots of people." The excitement began around 4:30 a.m. as the blue and yellow Olympic Torch Relay train pulled into the Union Pacific station from Sparks, Nev., for a two-hour stop before continuing on to Eugene. Jeff Christopherson, a high school senior from Rogue River, lit his torch from the open-air cauldron at the back of a railroad car and began the relay. The 18-year-old said he was surprised and excited to learn he would run first. "It was just perfect but what was even better was that I didn't know, until I got there, that I was the first runner," he said. "It was something I'm never going to forget. It was so perfect." Gold Hill resident Peter Fish agreed. "The thing that really got to me was when they mentioned that, when you're carrying the torch, you are the only one in the world that has the flame at that moment," said the 65-year-old Fish. "It really brings it home." At the end of the loop, the final runner touched her torch to the cauldron to rekindle the flame there. Dr. Doug Naversen of Jacksonville said the image of the moment was stunning. "It was pretty awesome," he said. "It was about 20 degrees with a light snow falling. The streets were snowy and icy... . When the final runner lit the flame on the cauldron, there was a huge brilliant flame surrounded by little snowflakes coming down all around. "It was almost like a Disney movie it was so perfect." The stop marked day 48 of the flame's 65-day, 13,500-mile journey through 46 states on the way to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The flame later made stops in Eugene, Salem, Tualatin, Tigard, and Durham before overnighting at a Portland hotel, encased in a lantern. Former Oregon Ducks quarterback Joey Harrington was scheduled to be one of the torchbearers in Portland. The journey was to begin again this morning, going through Washington, Alaska and Idaho before reaching Salt Lake City. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.