AMONG the 8,000 bearers who will be taking the Olympic torch around the country before the flame is lit at the Olympic Stadium in London on July 27 will be a retired clergyman from Tavistock.

It is an honour that the Rev Mike Lapage fully deserves as he is a silver medallist from the London Olympics in 1948 and only one of 12 British medallists alive from those games today.

Mike, aged 88, was invited by the London Olympic Games Organising Committee to apply for the honour of torchbearer. He will be passed the torch on Saturday in St Austell, as the UK journey starts in Land's End on that day. He will carry it for 300 metres before passing it on to the next recipient as it makes its way to Plymouth.

In 1948 Mike, who had seen service as a Fleet Air Arm pilot in the Pacific during the second world war, was a student at Cambridge University.

As a rower he was a member of the winning Cambridge team in the 1948 Boat Race, before later that summer winning silver for Great Britain at the London Olympics with an eight man crew.

Mike told the Times: 'Today's games will be very different from that of 60 years ago which in 1948 was known as the Austerity Games, coming just after the war.

'The whole games cost a million pounds then and they still made a profit!

'It's all different nowadays with its budget in the billions.

'The sporting spirit was then very much as intended by its founder Pierre de Coubertin that "it's not about winning but taking part that counts".

'I remember being at Wembley Stadium for the opening on a scorching hot day.

'It was a very simple ceremony — a rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus, and address by the Archbishop of York, a speech from King George and hearing a gun salute from outside the stadium!'

In the 1950s Mike worked as a teacher, before becoming a Christian missionary. He was ordained in Kenya in 1961, where he worked as a vicar in North Kenya for ten years. He came home with his family in 1972, working in Bedford School for three years, in France and later in Ross-on-Wye.

Having lived in Tavistock for many years Mike, although retired, is still an active member of St Andrew's Church at Whitchurch.

It has been an exciting time for Mike, as recently he has been to London to join the other British Olympic medallists from 1948.

Time magazine invited him to join his fellow Olympic oarsmen silver medallists from the British crew in 1948 to meet the USA team, who won the gold medal that year.

Rowing must be in the family blood as his grandsons Patrick and Sam are hoping to be selected for the British team for the 2016 Olympics.

When Mike runs through St Austell he will have his daughter and her family from Ivybridge to cheer him on.

'I know its only 300 metres but I reckon I will try to run for about 50 yards and walk the rest. I can't sprint like I used to. They offered me a wheelchair but I refused!' said Mike, who despite being in his late 80s, has obviously retained that 'Olympic spirit'.