Western Isles visit for Commonwealth Games relay 12/3/13
The Commonwealth Games baton will come to the Western Isles enroute to open the 2014
international sporting event being held in Scotland.
Queen's Baton Relay will first take a global route before touring Scotland. Details
of the Scottish leg - including the Western Isles dates - will be publicised later
this year.
The baton, which will be created especially for Glasgow 2014, will begin its journey
on 9 October at Buckingham Palace when the Queen will place a message to the Commonwealth
into the baton.
From there, the baton will travel to Glasgow and begin its epic journey. First stop
is Delhi, which hosted the 2010 games. Over the 248 days the baton will travel sequentially
through Asia, Oceania, Africa, South America, the Caribbean and USA before returning
to Europe and the UK.
The baton will average one to four days in each nation with an extended duration
of seven days in Wales, 14 days in England and 40 days in Scotland.
Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of Glasgow 2014, said: “For Scotland and Glasgow the
Queen’s Baton Relay creates an unparalleled chance to put both city and nation into
the international spotlight, creating valuable economic, cultural, and educational
opportunities for and beyond the Games.
“The last lap of this global journey brings the Baton back home to touch every community
in Scotland as the baton journeys to its final destination.”
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving 71 teams
of athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations.
The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years. Glasgow 2014 will
be the 20th Commonwealth Games and will be held from 23 July to 3 August.
It will feature 17 sports in 11 days of competition with 261 medal events on show.
The games will play host to 4500 athletes and sell 1,000,000 tickets with the event
aided by an army of up to 15,000 local volunteers.
Glasgow 2014 Ltd is the official name for the organising committee tasked with delivering
the Games in partnership with the Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council and Commonwealth
Games Scotland.