The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay will arrive here in St Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday, the 61st of the 72 destinations it will visit before the Games begin in Birmingham, England on 28th July.
The Queen’s Baton will be arriving from St Lucia and will be carried by Baton Manager, Claude Bascombe Jr.
Some of St Vincent and the Grenadines Sports Icons will be bearers of the Baton as it makes it way to Walliabou Falls, Fort Charlotte, the Botanic Gardens, several Primary and Secondary schools on the leeward or western side of the island, as well as to Mustique on Thursday and Friday before it next visits Bermuda.
At the change-over stops, there will be cultural activities and photo moments.
The Queen’s Baton Relay has been a tradition for the Commonwealth Games since the Games were inaugurated at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales.
The Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay started at Buckingham Palace on 7th October last year when Queen Elizabeth II placed Her Message to the Commonwealth in the Baton and passed it to four-time Paralympic gold medallist and Team England athlete, Kadeena Cox, who had the honour of being the first of thousands of Batonbearers to carry the Baton.
In 269 days, the 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay will visit the 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth and cover a distance of 140,000 kilometres across Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and the Americas, before it embarks on the final stretch of its journey across England for 25 days.
The Baton Relay will complete its journey at the Opening Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. This is a traditional and fundamental part of the Games and the Opening Ceremony, as the final Batonbearer will pass the Baton back to The Queen.
The Queen’s message to the Commonwealth will then be removed from the Baton and read aloud, marking the official start of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
