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SFU’s Burnaby campus played host to the Olympic Torch Relay Feb. 11 as hundreds of students, staff and faculty welcomed the Olympic flame.

Even an hour before the torch was due to arrive, people lined the roadways and staked out vantage points to show their spirit – unfazed by a drizzling rain – wearing red and carrying signs and noisemakers.

SFU’s torchbearer contest winner, Borvonan (Obi) Vattanawong, was overwhelmed by the huge cheering crowd. “SFU is a great community and I’m proud to be part of it.”



Vattanawong’s journey from Bangkok to Vancouver began with a desire to study video design. A third-year student in SFU Surrey’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT), he took his new-found knowledge and submitted a video entry in the SFU torchbearer contest entitled World of Opportunities (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6q5n_LsNk8). It captures his university experience and explains why SFU matters to him.

He’ll donate his Olympic torch to SIAT and it will be displayed at the Surrey campus. “I’m very grateful for the opportunities that SFU has given me,” Vattanawong says. “To carry the torch today for SFU was an amazing experience, the highlight of my life, so far, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity.”

Vattanawong handed off the torch to Michael Tchao, a fifth-year kinesiology student and former Clan football player. Tchao's last minute selection came as a stunning surprise to him. "I got shivers and I started tingling,” says Tchao, who works with the Right to Play club, which helps disadvantaged children through sport and play. “I couldn't even move. I just sat in the chair."

Tchao had to get permission from his professor to postpone a mid-term set for the time of his torch run.

Then came the run itself. “I looked at the crowd and thought, “This is insane. I was so hyper that I was just jumping up and down after getting off the shuttle bus. My friends and family said I was just on fire, super-excited. “

Tchao bore the torch down University Drive West to the Residence bus stop, then used his torch to re-light the Olympic Lantern that started with the original flame from Greece.



Obi Vattanawong handed the torch off to Michael Tchao (above), a fifth-year kinesiology student.
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