Queen’s baton to arrive on April 11

Seychelles will welcome the Queen’s baton for five days – from April 11-15 this year – and it will be the ninth country to do Young Seychellois taking part in the Queen’s baton relay in 2014so after the relay was set in motion on Monday.
It was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who set the Gold Coast 2018 (GC2018) Queen’s baton relay in motion during a star-studded commencement ceremony on Monday on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace as part of Commonwealth Day celebrations.
Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Earl of Wessex, the Queen, in her role as head of the Commonwealth, placed her message to the Commonwealth and its athletes inside the distinctive baton. She then handed over the baton to former Australian cyclist Anna Meares who was joined by her great rival Britain’s Victoria Pendleton and Australian singer Cody Simpson for a lap around the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace before a camper van drove Simpson and the baton on their way.
The Queen’s baton will now travel through the entire Commonwealth for 388 days, covering 230,000 kilometres to its final destination, the opening ceremony of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018), in Australia, on April 4, 2018.
It will he handed back to the Queen or her representative at the Games opening ceremony where the Queen’s message will be read aloud to mark the official opening of the event.
The Queen’s baton relay is a Games tradition that celebrates the Commonwealth’s diversity, inspires community pride and excites people about the world-class festival of sports and culture to come.
According to the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga), the Queen’s baton will arrive in Seychelles on Tuesday April 11 from Tanzania and while here it will be paraded all over Mahé, visiting all the schools on Wednesday April 12. On Thursday April 13 it will go to Praslin and La Digue. It will leave on Saturday April 15, 2017 for neighbouring Mauritius.
This is the fourth time Seychelles welcomes the Queen’s baton after June 2005 (ahead of the 2006 Games in Melbourne, Australia), January 2010 (ahead of the 2010 Games in Delhi, India) and January 2014 (ahead of the 2014 Games in Glasgow, Scotland).
Similar to the Olympic Torch relay, the Queen’s Baton will take flight today (March 15) to Sierra Leone – the first stop on the 388-day international journey to all nations and territories of the Commonwealth.
From Africa the baton will travel to the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Oceania, spending between two and four days in each Commonwealth nation and territory.
This will give a third of the world’s population the opportunity to share the experience.
Commonwealth Games Associations (CGA) in each nation and territory are responsible for selecting baton bearers that inspire their community to be great. Just to note that 60% of Commonwealth citizens are less than 30 years old.
The baton will arrive back in Australia and start its Australian journey on December 25, 2017. It will visit every state and territory across the country for 100 days.
On April 4, 2018 over 6,600 athletes and team officials from 70 nations and territories will converge on the Gold Coast for the 11-day sporting and cultural events.
Designed by Brisbane company Designworks, the baton is of distinctive loop design and it has been inspired by the Gold Coast region’s “vibrant spirit and indigenous heritage” and with sustainability in mind. It is made out of macadamia wood and recycled plastic sourced from Gold Coast waterways.
For the first time, it will be present at the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) in Nassau in The Bahamas from July 19-23, 2018.
The Queen’s baton relay is a Games tradition that celebrates the Commonwealth’s diversity, inspires community pride and excites people about the world-class festival of sports and culture to come.
So if you are chosen to be a baton bearer, you will not only be a part of its journey but also involved in GC2018.