Most torchbearers come from outside the region

Fewer than half of the Olympic torchbearers chosen to carry the famous flame through the Black Country and Staffordshire have been found to be from the region.

Olympic bosses today defended the figure.

They said that they had tried wherever possible to allocate torchbearers to their hometowns but the operation was challenging. There are 119 people carrying the flame through Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell, Dudley, Kidderminster, Stafford, Lichfield and Cannock.

Forty five are from the region. A further 10 people from the Black Country and parts of Staffordshire will carry the torch in other parts of the country.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) said it had tried to place people carrying the torch within one hour of where they lived.

It said it simply came down to logistics, not helped by the fact there were a number of different nomination processes – LOCOG itself, Coca Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung.

A spokesman said: "It was quite a challenge to organise 8,000 people around the country. We would have loved to have everyone running in their respective towns and villages, but there were more than four different nomination processes – ours, Lloyds, Coke and Samsung – and it was a real challenge.

"We tried to get people into their area or within one hour of where they live. In the end, it came down to logistics."

An average of 115 torchbearers will carry the flame each day during its 8,000-mile journey around the UK before it arrives at the Olympic Stadium on July 27.

There, it will light the cauldron at the opening ceremony, signifying the official start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.