Torch Relay Update -- Flame Under Security in Dagestan

(ATR) The torch relay was conducted entirely in Anzhi Arena for the Makhachkala leg of the relay.

After arriving in the capital of the Dagestan Republic via airplane, the Olympic flame was transported directly to Anzhi Arena where 67 torchbearers did laps around a track for the relay.

Torchbearers dressed in traditional clothing, and some rode motorbikes for the relay.

Hadzhimurad Magomedov, gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympics, was the last torchbearer of the day. Magomedov and Ramazan Abdulatipov, the president of the Republic of Dagestan, jointly lit the Olympic Cauldron for Makhachkala.

According to NBC News, there were originally supposed to be 270 torchbearers carrying the flame through the city, but the number was reduced to 67 and the relay route confined to Anzhi Arena after Dagestani militant groups released a video targeting the Olympics last Friday.

A simultaneous relay was held in Karachay-Cherkessia.

The city of Vladikavkaz was supposed to welcome the flame on February 2, but its leg of the relay was rescheduled to today.

Despite the rescheduling, over 10,000 people came to cheer on the Olympic flame according to the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee.

On Tuesday, the torch will travel to Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic. Over 110 people are expected to carry the torch through the city.

With less than one month to go, the flame is making its way back into European Russia and, ultimately, Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on February 7.

Written by Aaron Bauer.