Queen's Baton Relay

The Queens Baton Relay is one of the greatest traditions of the Commonwealth Games, having been the curtain-raiser to every Games since Cardiff 1958. The relay symbolises the gathering of people from across the Commonwealth at the four-yearly festival of sport and culture.

Melbourne 2006 has been the most memorable adventure so far, travelling for a year and a day visiting the 71 nations of the Commonwealth – home to one third of the world’s population! Click on the following link to see some unique moments from Melbourne 2006 Queen’s Baton Relay.

Over the years, the Queens Baton Relay has evolved into a powerful symbol of the unity and diversity of the Commonwealth of Nations. With each Games, the tradition grows in scale and significance – including more nations, involving more participants and generating more excitement than ever before but the Delhi 2010 Baton’s journey is planned to be the biggest yet. It is set to be the longest and most technologically advanced of the Baton Relays to date.

The Delhi 2010 Baton Relay was launched on 29th October 2009 at Buckingham Palace in London, with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II handing the Baton to the Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who in turn passed it to Dr. M. S Gill and Mr. Suresh Kalmadi. Mr. Kalmadi then had the honour of passing the Baton to the first Baton bearer, Abhinav Bindra, the Olympic air rifle champion who began the Baton's journey with a relay around the Queen Victoria Monument.

The first team of Baton bearers included: Lord Sebastian Coe, Kapil Dev, Sania Mirza, Milka Singh, Dame Kelly Holmes, Vijender Kumar and Susan Gilroy to name just a few.

The Queen’s Baton will travel through all the Commonwealth countries until it lands in India where it will spend 100 days touring the 28 states. It will then be taken to to its final destination, the Jawaharlal Neru Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the XIX Commonwealth Games, where Her Majesty’s message will be read aloud to the athletes.

During the Baton’s journey not only can you track the progress of the Baton but the sights and sounds of the Commonwealth will be captured using the built in camera and fed to the CWG Delhi 2010 website so that people around the globe can experience the diversity of the Commonwealth cultures and landscapes over the Baton’s epic journey.

For more information on the Delhi 2010 Queens Baton Relay and to keep up to date on the Batons progress please visit http://cwgdelhi2010.org/batonrelay2010/.