Queen’s Baton Relay passes through SVG

The COMMONWEALTH Games Queen’s Baton Relay passed through St Vincent last weekend, with the Grenadines island of Mustique also getting a leg of the relay.{{more}}

The Baton Relay started last Friday morning and its trek started in Fancy, where it was officially handed over in the north.

The relay began, though, in Owia and journeyed to the Grammar School Playing Field, via the main Windward highway.

Later that afternoon, it was formally presented to Governor General Sir Frederick Ballantyne at a ceremony at Government House.

The Baton then made a journey to Mustique and returned to the mainland for a run from the E.T. Joshua Airport to Kingstown and back to the Arnos Vale Sports Complex, where a mini-sports festival was held.

A highlight of Saturday’s activities was Elton Anderson, the lone survivor of the St Vincent and the Grenadines’ team to the 1958 Games, held in Cardiff, Wales.

Anderson, as he did when the Baton Relay came this way in 2010, carried it into the Arnos Vale venue this time around.

A former sprinter, Anderson expressed his pleasure in the honour of being afforded the opportunity to carry the torch once more.

Anderson commented on the several changes that sports have gone through, from when he was an athlete.

Following Saturday’s activities, the Baton was finally taken on Sunday morning to North Leeward for that side of the island to share in the occasion.

St Vincent and the Grenadines was the 46th stop of the Baton, which began its tour on October 9, last year, when it left Buckingham Palace.

It will travel for 288 days, traversing 70 countries and notching up 190 000 kilometres, and returns to the home of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, June 14.

The XX Commonwealth Games begin July 23, and culminate August 4.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has pouched two goal medals at the Commonwealth Games, the second in the last edition in 2010, when the Games were held in Delhi, India, through the efforts of Natasha Mayers.

Mayers gained the gold medal in the women’s 100 m, after placing third in the event. However, disqualification of the initial first and second places saw her being elevated to the top spot.

The first gold medal was attained by boxer Frankie Lucas, who champed in the 75kg category at the New Zealand Games in 1974.

The first medal won by a Vincentian was achieved in the 1970 Games in Scotland, when George Manners earned bronze in weightlifting in the middleweight division. (RT)