This appears to be the moment two retail executives exchanged an olympic ‘torch kiss’ on Wednesday as they carried the Olympic torch through Staffordshire.
As revealed previously by Help Me Investigate Olympics, and now reported in The Independent, Daily Mail and Guardian, Intersport UK general manager Tom Foley and Next’s Group Product Director Christos Angelides were nominated by adidas to carry the torch because they had been “engaged in the business of sport for a number of years”.
The moment that the flame was passed between the two men was captured and published on Twitter by BBC Stoke. Angelides was also snapped earlier by Instagram user Trovster. Thanks to This Is Staffordshire’s David Elks for pointing us to both images from the site’s liveblog.
And on Friday adidas torchbearer Clare Ennis – who shared the same nomination story as Foley and Angelides – was photographed carrying the torch through Knotty Ash by PH Chan.
Chan was curious enough to start searching for more details on the runner, which is how he came across Help Me Investigate Olympics. He wrote:
“I did research on her on the Olympic Torch site and was surprised that she mentioned adidas and also that she was not a local person. She also did not have any involvement with a charity like many of the other torch bearers. She did come across as quite friendly and got on well with the crowd and had her photo taken with Ken Dodd.
“Then I came across your investigation website and was surprised as you were that several torch bearers had the same story. I don’t think it’s right that any of the torch bearer[s] should be associated with the sponsors at all. I wonder how many members of the public realise this. I would much rather have had a local person running through Knotty Ash who was a deserving cause.”
This is very interesting and clearly worth investigating.
However, I don’t see how PH Chan can draw conclusions about Clare Ennis’s “involvement in sport” based on the photographs. My concern is that a judgement has been made based on her figure which is, quite frankly, irrelevant to her “involvement in sport”.
Thanks Jen, you’re right.
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I’m still none the wiser who Clare Ennis is and all 3 of the above torch bearers do not inspire the youth of today to take up sport in my opinion.
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