Back in 1956, Graham Batson was only 18 when his running club was approached to see if any members would like to carry the Olympic torch on a one-mile section of its journey to the opening ceremony in Melbourne.
Mr Batson currently lives in Tarnook, but back in 1956 he was living in Geelong when the Olympic Committee got in touch.
“I was running cross country, in two- to four-mile races with the Geelong Guild Athletics Club,” Mr Batson said.
“A few members took part, mainly the top runners we had.
“I was given 10 minutes to run one mile. You had to get your torch alight and run the mile, and you had to be to the next runner within 10 minutes.”
Mr Batson said the timing was very strict to ensure the last runner was there to light the big torch at an exact moment in the opening ceremony.
“You can see in the photo there is an army truck behind me. It had all the torches and everything we needed.
“My section was downhill. So I had to hand it over to one of the top runners in the area, who had to get uphill, one mile in the 10-minute window.”
Mr Batson said the Olympics coming to Australia was a big thing at the time, and it was a massive honour to take part.
If there was a downside, it was that the torch was hot. Very hot.
“You can see in the picture I’m holding it away from me,” he said.
“I had to keep swapping hands and try and keep it from getting too close. You could really feel the heat.”
Each runner had their own torch, and when approaching the end of his section, Mr Batson held it out, and the next runner touched his torch to it, passing the flame.
He then headed home to watch the opening ceremony on TV.
“There weren’t too many TVs around back then,” he said.
“An old aunt of mum’s had one, so we all gathered around to watch the torch arrive.”
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