Olympic torch visits forerunner of modern games

LONDON (AP) - With 58 days to go before the start of the London Games, the Olympic torch has travelled through a small town in central England credited as the birthplace of sport's biggest extravaganza.

The flame was paraded Wednesday through Much Wenlock, which began celebrating the Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850 and was visited by International Olympic Committee founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin 40 years later.

De Coubertin cited the town's games as an inspiration for the first modern Olympics, staged in Athens in 1896. One of the London Olympics mascots is named Wenlock in recognition of the town's historical significance.

On the 12th day of the relay, the flame also went across the world's first iron bridge - in a town called Ironbridge.