The first leg of Athens Olympic flame's global relay started here Friday morning, with Cathy Freeman, the Sydney Olympic women's 400m champion, becoming the first bearer.

The Athens Olympic torch relay will be the first-ever real global tour to go through the five continents in the Olympic history. It will involve 11,000 torch bearers in 34 cities of 27 countries and regions.

A chartered jumbo jet dubbed "Zeus" and carrying the flame arrived at the Sydney airport at 6:10 AM (20:10 Thursday GMT ).

The flame was received by Australian Acting Prime Minister JohnAnderson and Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates.

Freeman, who lit the cauldron at the Sydney Olympic Games, raised high her Athens torch before a wall of cameramen and ran hundreds of meters along side the Sydney harbour.

Crowds of people lined along the route and cheered loud and took photos when the torch passed. Radio and TV broadcast live therelay process to millions of listeners and watchers.

A total of 277 people, including dozens of sports stars, will carry the flame in the Australian leg of the relay, which will go through Melbourne, the host city of 1956 Olympic games, on Saturday.

Sydney's relay route includes a climb of the well-known HarbourBridge and a sailing on Sydney Harbour, before arriving at OlympicPark late Friday.

Source: Xinhua