Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022 Queen’s baton relay to arrive here on December 23 |28 October 2021
Seychelles will be the 22nd country to welcome the Queen’s baton on Thursday December 23, 2021, meaning it will spend Christmas here.
The baton, which is travelling to every nation and territory which will take part in the Commonwealth Games next year in Birmingham, England, will arrive here from Lesotho and depart on Monday December 27 for Pakistan.
According to Hebetty Alcindor of the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (Socga), a host of activities is being organised by the local Olympic body to mark the event and the final programme will be revealed closer to the event.
The baton is being taken to each destination by courier as part of plans to prevent the spread of Covid-19. It begun its journey in Cyprus where it was carried by jet ski, the first of many unusual methods which will transport the baton during the relay's 294 days, covering 140,000 kilometres.
The Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, attended a special ceremony on the forecourt of the Buckingham Palace on October 7, 2021 to launch the 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
During the ceremony, Her Majesty the Queen placed her message to the Commonwealth into the baton, for it to be sealed and locked. The queen’s message will be read out in full when the global journey of the baton will conclude at the Birmingham 2022 opening ceremony on July 28, 2022.
The Queen’s baton relay is a tradition that celebrates, connects and excites communities from across the Commonwealth during the build up to the Games.The next Commonwealth Games in Birmingham will end on August 8, 2022 and are set to have the largest integrated para sport programme in history with eight sports: para athletics, para cycling, para powerlifting, para swimming, para table tennis, para triathlon, and wheelchair basketball 3x3, alongside para lawn bowls.
Leading up to the arrival of the Queen’s baton, the Seychelles NATION newspaper will run a daily countdown starting today.