AN OLYMPIAN, a schoolgirl and a disabled table-tennis champion will all carry the Olympic torch through York this summer, before it arrives at the racecourse on a thoroughbred horse.

Stanley Wild, 68, of Muncaster, who represented Britain at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games and is director of York Community & Gymnastics Foundation, said of being selected to carry the torch: “It’s the culmination of my Olympic dream. It’s very exciting.”

All Saints RC School pupil Jessica Hoggarth-Hall, of Foxwood, will mark her 14th birthday with the extraordinary honour of carrying the torch. “My friends are really excited,” she said, adding that she hoped fellow pupils would be lining the route.

Clive Warley, 74, of Acomb, who was a four-time British disabled table-tennis champion and was a semi-finalist in the European championships in 1999, said he would be pushed along the route in his wheelchair: “I’m absolutely delighted,” he said, adding that if his mother had been alive, she would have said: “Fancy, our little Clive...”

City of York Council said the torch’s York journey, which is set to be televised live on BBC, would start at York College on June 19 and head down Tadcaster Road, along the Bar Walls from Micklegate Bar to Lendal Bridge, and then through city-centre streets including Coney Street, Stonegate, Low Petergate, Shambles, Clifford Street and Bishopthorpe Road to the racecourse.

York Press: Olympic torch route

There, a jockey and horse carry will the flame along the final furlong before delivering it to the event stage, where entertainment will include dozens of musicians playing African drums and a performance by the Minster choir.

Earlier that day, there will be sporting giant’s games on Knavesmire – a sports day involving four-metre high puppets made by children from 23 York primary schools, along with taster sessions of activities including basketball, cheer-leading, table tennis and equestrianism.

On June 20, the flame will be carried from the Minster to the National Railway Museum, from where it will steam to Thirsk on a Scots Guardsman locomotive.

Sebastian Coe, chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), said local people could now start planning for the torch’s arrival and how they might “make it York’s moment to shine.”

Before it arrives in York, the torch will be carried from Whitby to Pickering and then to Scarborough, Filey and Hull, before heading to Selby through Camblesforth, and then to Harrogate and Ripon via Barkston Ash, Tadcaster, Boston Spa and Wetherby.

York Press: Olympic torch map

• YORK is also to host the Paralympic Flame in August. It will be taken to Energise sports centre in Cornlands Road for the Celebrating Ability Day on August 24. The city council is seeking nominations for people to carry the flame.

For more information, visit york.gov.uk/yorkgold2012