Commonwealth Games: Queen's Baton Relay launch
- Published
The Queen signs a message to the Commonwealth athletes on a parchment that will travel inside the baton on its epic journey around the globe.
The Glasgow 2014 baton was made by Glasgow firm 4c Design. Part of the design brief was to ensure the baton weighed less than 2kg and that it could withstand the elements on its 118,000-mile journey.
Within the top of the titanium latticework head of the baton is a piece of granite from Ailsa Craig, an island in the Clyde. Each nation and territory that welcomes the baton will receive the stone as a gift - once the puzzle mechanism that surrounds the granite is cracked.
Glasgow 2014 ambassador Sir Chris Hoy leads the Scots Guards 1st Battalion Pipes and Drums up The Mall as he carries the empty baton towards Buckingham Palace.
The flags of the 70 Commonwealth nations and territories to be visited by the baton surround the stage and the baton on its plinth, at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in which the Queen launched the 288-day relay.
The Queen places her message inside the intricate head of the baton, watched by Commonwealth Games Federation president Prince Imran Tunku and Lord Smith of Kelvin, who chairs the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee.
Former Scottish sprinter Allan Wells, the 1980 Olympic 100m champion and four-time Commonwealth gold medallist, turns to face the crowds, having received the baton from the Queen.
Allan Wells turns at the gates of Buckingham Palace to receive a send-off from the Queen, Prince Philip and Lord Smith of Kelvin. The Queen will next hold the baton at the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games at Celtic Park in Glasgow's east end on 23 July 2014.
Cumbernauld's Beth Gilmour, 13, flanked by Clyde, the Games mascot she designed for a Blue Peter competition, takes a turn at holding the baton before it heads to Glasgow, then India as part of its Asian tour, Oceania, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America and Europe, returning to Scotland on 14 June.
- Published9 October 2013
- Published21 October 2013
- Published9 October 2013