Noah Palansky, 13, is introduced by Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz as the city's official Olympic torchbearer. (CBC)

A 13-year-old boy has been named to carry the Olympic torch when it arrives in Winnipeg in January.

Noah Palansky, wearing an official Olympic sweatshirt and bobbing up and down with excitement at Winnipeg City Hall, was designated as the official community torchbearer on Thursday.

Although he will be the last of about 50 people to carry the torch through Manitoba, Noah was chosen from 30 candidates to have the distinction of being the official bearer in Winnipeg — the one who carries it the final 300 metres to a cauldron at The Forks on Jan. 5.

"It's, like, undescribable," Noah said following the announcement by Mayor Sam Katz. "It's an amazing feeling knowing that you've been chosen from the city to do this honour."

'It's an amazing feeling knowing that you've been chosen from the city to do this honour.'—Noah Palansky

The student at the Gray Academy of Jewish Education was chosen because of his commitment to cancer research and care. He began fundraising for CancerCare Manitoba last year after his mother, Naomi, was diagnosed with the disease.

Since then he has raised $60,000 for research and has set the lofty lifetime goal of raising $1 million.

Noah was given an opportunity to hold the unlit torch during a trial run on Thursday.

"That was the first time I've even seen it, and it felt amazing to hold it and see it," he said.

Naomi Palansky was beaming at her son during Thursday's announcement.

"It just brings tears to my eyes to know that this community chose him to represent it for something so magnificent," she said.

Among the other 50 people carrying the torch through the province is University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy, who will have it at a location between Kenora and Winnipeg.

Olympic flame on 106-day journey

The Olympic flame is currently on Day 14 of its 106-day cross-Canada torch relay. During the trek, the flame will visit over 1,000 communities and be carried by 12,000 different torchbearers while covering more than 43,000 kilometres.

On Thursday, the torch was in the northern Newfoundland and Labrador community of St. Anthony.

It passed through northern Manitoba on Saturday and Sunday as part of the northern leg of the journey, which will turn southward and arrive back in the province on Day 68 — Jan. 5 — as it travels through 31 communities before moving on to Saskatchewan on Day 72.

The relay, a ritual invented for the 1936 Summer Games in Germany, will end with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on Feb. 12.