BRAZILIAN basketball star Oscar Schmidt will carry the Olympic flame into Warrington town centre on Thursday.

The 54-year-old, 6ft 8in star, is the leading points scorer in Olympic history and was inducted into the world basketball hall of fame in 2010.

He is widely considered to be the best basketball player never to have competed in the NBA.

He will hand the torch to John Paul Smith, aged 25, from Rainhill, at the fountain by the skittle in the centre of town.

He currently works for a charitable organisation called Warrington Youth For Christ who support young people who come from disadvantage backgrounds and communities.

During his time working for the charity he has set up a youth project on a Friday evening support young adults to get them off the streets and give them something to do.

In the past year the project has grown from 10 young people to approx 150 young people attending on a weekly basis.

Eleven other runners will also take to the streets on the day, with the torch due to arrive in town just before 1pm.

It will make its way through the town centre before a stop at Tesco at 1.15pm.

It will continue 15 minutes later to Orford Park where the convoy will stop for lunch.

It will make another short stop at BT in Gemini at around 2.45pm before leaving to Wigan.

It will be day 13 of the torch.