THE 15th leg of the global Olympic flame journey was completed in Canberra on Thursday as scheduled without any major disruptions.

    Ian Thorpe, five-time gold medalist, was the last torchbearer and lit the cauldron at 11:30 a.m. accompanied by loud cheers and applause from spectators at Stage 88 of the Commonwealth Park in downtown Canberra.

    During the torch relay, tens of thousands of spectators, many of them enthusiastic Chinese expatriates and students, lined both sides of the streets along the route and cheered on the torchbearers, chanting support for the Beijing Olympics.

    As many as 20,000 Chinese arrived by bus, car and plane to cheer on the torch, many waving large red Chinese flags.

    Australian Capital Territory government spokesman Jeremy Lasek said the Olympic torch relay in Canberra was a success.

    He said that among more than 20,000 people at the relay, there were only six arrests.

    “The most important thing is the flame was never in danger, from start to finish, and that’s an enormous credit to our federal police,” he said, adding tight security was in place to prevent major disruptions, with some 1,000 security personnel deployed to safeguard the historical event.(Xinhua)