Subo to carry Queen's Baton

graysea · Saturday 19/07/2014

Subo to carry Queen's Baton

Singing star Susan Boyle and Scotland football manager Gordon Strachan are to carry the Queen's Baton in Glasgow as the city counts down to the start of the Commonwealth Games, organisers have announced.

Saturday 19/07/2014

The baton, which contains a message from the Queen, will arrive in the city tomorrow ahead of the international sporting tournament.

A total of 400 baton bearers will carry it round Glasgow, before it arrives at the Games opening ceremony on Wednesday evening.

The baton has already travelled through the Commonwealth, visiting its 70 nations and territories in the run-up to the event.

Boyle, who shot to fame after appearing on Britain's Got Talent, will carry the baton at Yorkhill Royal Hospital for Sick Children in the city on Monday morning, while Strachan will take hold of it at the Hampden Park national stadium the following day.

Jackie Brock-Doyle, of Glasgow 2014, said: "The baton arrives in Glasgow tomorrow morning. It starts in Glasgow Green and, with four days to go, the countdown really is starting for this city.

"We'll see 400 bearers in and around Glasgow. We do have Susan Boyle, who will be running with the baton, we do have the manager of the Scotland football team, Gordon Strachan."

Round-the-world cyclist Mark Beaumont travelled with the baton for some eight months across the Commonwealth, visiting no fewer than 68 out of the countries that are competing in the Games.

He met athletes from across the globe who will be taking part in the sporting event, and said: "When I set off on the journey it was the big famous sports, the ones that sold out quickest - the athletics, the track cycling - that I was most excited about.

"But coming to the actual start of the Games what I am most enthused about is some of the smaller sports, some of the athletes that are coming from the most remote parts of the Commonwealth, some of those island territories where the Commonwealth Games is their greatest international competition.

"When you come from Scotland, when you come from some of the bigger Commonwealth countries, it's sometimes easy to lose sight of that, how important the Commonwealth Games is as a competition to some of these athletes.

"So I'm looking forward to the likes of wrestling, to lawn bowls, to table tennis and some of the sports I knew very little about before."

Paula McGuire was chosen as one of the community baton bearers for Glasgow after she decided to try all of the different sports that are part of the Commonwealth Games.

"It's really an honour to carry this beacon of the Commonwealth Games," she said.

"Why I'm nominated to carry the baton is my own incredible journey. Two years ago sport meant nothing to me, it was something other people did. I was really shy, I had never been on a team and I couldn't run the length of myself.

"Then I decided I would try all 17 of the Commonwealth sports before the Games, because I live five minutes away from where the Games are taking place. I started out trying the sports and it grew arms and legs."

She conquered her fear of the water to learn to swim as part of that, and took part in the final sport in her challenge - rugby sevens - yesterday.

She said: "I fell really honoured to carry this baton. Tomorrow I'm not just carrying a bit of wood across Glasgow, I'm carrying part of this journey I've had, for the people of Glasgow these Games have touched."

Gymnast Steve Frew, who won gold for Scotland on the men's rings in the 2002 Games in Manchester, carried the baton in his home town Falkirk

"I think the baton brings together the spirit and the values of the Commonwealth Games," he said.

"I've been lucky enough to compete for Scotland in five Commonwealth Games all around the world.

"It was very special to be back home, where it all began for me, to carry such an incredible thing as the baton. It brought communities together and I think sport brings people and communities together in a way that not much else can, so it was really great to be involved."

For article:

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/u...medium=twitter

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Here is the Queen inserting her secret message into the baton

(it will be revealed at the Opening Ceremony):