Countywide : Olympic Torch to Pass Through Area

The Olympic torch will pass through Ventura County on Monday and Wednesday as runners complete the 27-day journey from Sacramento to Los Angeles for the opening of the U.S. Olympic Festival.

About 4,000 runners will carry the torch on one-fifth mile segments of the 1,700-mile journey through 187 California communities.

The lighting of the Olympic caldron at Dodger Stadium on July 12 will signify the opening of the festival games.

Sponsored by the U.S. Olympic Committee, the games will feature more than 3,000 U.S. amateur athletes competing in 36 sports events during a 10-day period.

After a stretch through Santa Barbara County, torch runners will enter Ventura County on Monday.

They will jog from Main and South Garden streets in Ventura through downtown, following California Street, East Santa Clara Street and Main Street onto Telegraph Road and then Victoria Avenue, where they will stop at Moon Drive.

The run will pick up again at Oxnard Boulevard and Vineyard Avenue. From there, the route follows Citrus Grove Lane, North C Street, Gonzales Road and Oxnard Boulevard.

Runners will resume the trip on Las Posas Road at Pacific Coast Highway before ending the day at Hueneme and Las Posas roads.

After following a route into the San Fernando Valley, the runners will head back into Ventura County late Wednesday for a leg of the zigzag course in Thousand Oaks.

The route will take runners past Agoura Hills Post Office on Clareton Drive, and onto Canwood Drive, Kanan Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard past GTE California, ending at the Thousand Oaks Post Office on Duesenberg Drive.

GTE, a patron of the games, has festivities planned in honor of the torch runners as the procession passes through Thousand Oaks about 4 p.m. Olympic gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton will carry the torch along Thousand Oaks Boulevard to GTE headquarters.

Other runners taking part on behalf of GTE will include city officials, a judge, a local newspaper editor and GTE executives. Spectators may meet Retton, and clowns and magicians will be on hand for children.