Television celebrity Hikaru Nishida kicked off the last 10-team relay shortly after 10 a.m. in front of City Hall for the 19.8-kilometer trip amid cheers from spectators who lined the streets along the way to the Olympic stadium at the Minami Nagano Sports Park.

The flame, which was lit at the Olympia temple ruins in Greece on Dec. 19, has covered a 1,100-km journey that crisscrossed all the 47 prefectures in Japan, arriving in the host city Thursday.

A total of 7,000 runners, from schoolchildren to a man in his 90s, took part in the relay since the flame arrived in Japan on Jan. 6.

The torch relay journey, which set off in three routes from Hokkaido, Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures until the flames were joined into one at the Central Plaza in Nagano on Friday, had its own share of hitches.

The torches went out at least 10 times for one reason or another during the journey that involved 1,150 legs of about 1 km each.

(Kyodo News)