Fifty-one athletes and 17 coaches from Otago will be heading to Hamilton to take part in the New Zealand Special Olympics Summer Games.
More than 1500 athletes from across the country will head to the city to participate in four days of competition from December 8 to 12.
The national summer games had been planned for 2021, but were postponed because of Covid-19.
They are a chance for the athletes to have their names put forward for the international games in Berlin next year.
The Law Enforcement Torch Run, where local Special Olympics athletes carry the Flame of Hope (better known as the Olympic torch) alongside members of the emergency services, has become a tradition since it first occurred in 1981 in the US state of Kansas.
The flame symbolises courage, celebrates diversity and unites communities around the globe with more than 97,000 law enforcement members carrying the torch at events annually.
Yesterday, the Otago athletes participated in a series of games such as cornhole before taking part in the torch run.
One of the star throwers was Grace Moreton, who will be competing in the swimming event.
Miss Moreton started swimming when she was 16 and was "great at training, she’s so reliable and positive", coach Margaret van Betuw said.
Miss Moreton had brought along the team’s mascot, a blue and yellow bear called Rodger who was the namesake of a former Otago Special Olympics coach who had died.
Normally, the torch run is from the Dunedin Central Police Station to the Octagon, but this year Senior Sergeant Brian Benn said they would be doing a walk around a set course, adding, "It’s a chance to walk and talk and get to know each other".
On the walk — which led the group through the Countdown car park around the corner, through the police alley way and back to the station — they were joined by supporters, friends, coaches, emergency services and Mayor Aaron Hawkins.
The team shared the torch among themselves, with a different athlete holding it at points during the race.
First to hold the torch was another swimmer, Phillip Lomas, who had been participating in the sport for "years and years and years", Ms van Betuw said.
"It’s so exciting to hold the torch," Mr Lomas said.
The torch, which came up from Invercargill, will now travel north, stopping into most major centres over the next two months.
