THOUSANDS flocked to St Ives this morning (Sunday) to watch the Olympic Torch relay – despite the rain.

It may have all been over very quickly – it took just a couple of minutes for the convoy of vehicles and the torch bearer to rush past – but the general feeling was that it was well

worth getting up early and braving the Great British weather.

As well as dedicated Huntingdonshire folk – who struggled to find parking spaces in a packed town centre – there were people from Germany and the USA on the streets to watch the torchbearers.

St Ives Mayor Councillor Debbie Townsend said: “It was brilliant!. I keep saying brilliant, but it was.

“The atmosphere was fantastic and considering the weather, the amount of people that turned out was great. The last time I saw St Ives like this was for the Millennium.

“This was a once in a lifetime event. We’ll never see anything like this again. I’m ever so proud of St Ives. When I woke up and drew back the curtains this morning I could see everybody walking down and thought ‘this is going to be great.’

“I think there has been about 10,000 people lining the whole route. This is one of those occasions when people will say ‘I know where I was on that day.’

“It must have been fantastic for the torchbearers.”

The event was just a good for those on the other side of the torch.

The St Ives torchbearers included Charlie Alan, David Cleaver, St Ivo School teacher Nell Macleod, GB hockey player Ben Hawes, Mark Fliegauf and Stuart Mitchell.

Ben, who is a European champion and is more used than most to being in the spotlight, told The Hunts Post: “It was amazing. So many people turned up and I couldn’t believe how happy everyone was so early on a rainy Sunday morning. There were so many people waving and cheering and taking pictures.

“I’ve done a few big events, but not one were the people are so close. Everyone was getting into the spirit.”

You can e-mail your views and pictures of the torch relay to editor@huntspost.co.uk