Penza, 10 January 2014. PenzaNews. The Olympic torch relay started in Penza on Friday, January 10.

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The lamp with one of the main Sochi 2014 symbols was delivered to the city by special train decorated with the “patchwork quilt” patterns.

Regional and city authorities, athletes, and creative teams took part in the solemn meeting of the train.

Greeting people the governor of the Penza region Vasily Bochkarev noted the significance of the relay that allows all the Russians to be a part of such an important event as the Olympic Games.

“Today Penza has become a member of the Olympic movement. People in Penza loved, love and, I am sure, will love sport, especially Olympic,” he said.

The head of the region recalled that in 2012 in London Penza residents won eight medals and took the second place in the Federal Volga district after Kazan by the number of medals.

“There are three cities in our state – Moscow, Penza and Chelyabinsk – which raised hockey-players, Olympic champions, and every city has six such athletes each,” Vasily Bochkarev added.

He also expressed gratitude to coaches especially those working with children.

The first torch of the relay stage was lit up in the hands of Irina Bazhina (Kalinina) – the only Soviet and Russian Olympic champion in individual 3 meter springboard diving.

It took her only a few minutes to overcome the distance from the railway station “Penza-I” to Suvorova Street.

The second torchbearer was the editor of the Internet service “Penza-Sport” – one of the projects of news agency PenzaNews – Vyacheslav Zhukov who, in his turn, passed the torch to the biathlon champion of the Olympics in Innsbruck, a founder of the children’s biathlon sports school Alexander Elizarov.