GREECE - The countdown to the London Olympics began with the kindling of the Games torch by the sun's rays in ancient Olympia yesterday, sparking a relay that will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic Stadium's cauldron at the opening ceremony on July 27.

On a warm and sunny day at the site of the ancient Olympics, actress Ino Menegaki, playing a high priestess, appealed to sun god Apollo and needed only a few seconds to ignite the torch at the ruins of the Temple of Hera with the help of a parabolic mirror, 78 days before the Games get under way.

The relay's first torchbearer, Spyros Gianniotis, a Liverpool-born Greek swimmer who won the gold medal in the 10km open water event at the 2011 world championships, started the seven-day Greek leg of the relay before the flame is handed over to London organisers on May 17 and flown to Britain a day later. The second torchbearer was 19-year-old Alexander Loukos, a Briton of Greek origin.

London becomes the only city to have received the Olympic flame twice - the first time being for the 1948 Games.