The Queen’s Commonwealth Games Baton Relay launches on October 9 and BBC One will broadcast live coverage from Buckingham Palace as the build-up to Glasgow 2014 officially begins.
One of the great traditions of Commonwealth Games since the 1950s, the Baton Relay will for the first time be covered by the BBC across its entire journey in all 70 competing nations and territories taking part in next year’s Games.
Sir Chris Hoy, Great Britain’s most successful Olympian, leads the team of baton bearers who will cover 190,000 kilometres over the coming year.
Widely regarded as the ‘Friendly Games’ and first held in 1930, Glasgow 2014 will be the 20th Commonwealth Games and will be held from July 23 to August 3, featuring 17 sports in 11 days of competition with 261 medal events on show.
Just over a year on from the extraordinary London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Britain hosts another global sporting feast as Scotland plays host to 4500 athletes and one million spectators, aided by an army of up to 15,000 local volunteers.
The first Queen’s Baton Relay was staged for the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and has been the curtain raiser to the Games ever since.
A central part of the sporting spectacle, the tradition sees the Head of the Commonwealth – Queen Elizabeth II – place a message inside a baton.
It will then be read out by Her Majesty at the opening ceremony of Glasgow 2014, after the baton travels around the 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.
On Wednesday, October 9, the relay for Glasgow 2014 will launch at Buckingham Palace, where Sir Chris Hoy will join classical music superstar Nicola Benedetti and Olympic gold medallist Allan Wells MBE at the event.
The Queen will set the baton on its way at Buckingham Palace, after which it will head to New Delhi, host of the last Commonwealth Games in 2010.
The route includes some of the larger Commonwealth countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, Kenya, Ghana, Jamaica and Canada.
The baton, made out of titanium, wood and granite, is expected to cover about 123,000 miles as it takes in all 70 competing nations of the Commonwealth on its 248-day journey, including a historic first visit to Rwanda.
It will spend Christmas in the small South Pacific Island of Vanuatu, before the relay culminates in a 40-day tour of Scotland in the summer of 2014.
GLASGOW 2014: QUEEN’S BATON RELAY ROUTE
Following from the success of its extensive coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, the BBC will also follow the Commonwealth Games equivalent across TV, radio and online.
Led by adventurer and broadcaster Mark Beaumont, coverage will be provided across the baton’s epic global journey via BBC One’s The One Show and Breakfast, as well as BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland, along with BBC News outlets, and online.
From October 9, when the Queen places her message within the baton to launch it on its special international tour, Beaumont and the team will be producing documentaries, features and news updates, with online users able to chart the baton’s progress in a special BBC News blog.
Twitter and Facebook will feature the latest information from the relay with regular updates from each event, with the official Queen’s Baton Relay twitter feed being @BBCMarkBeaumont.
The blog and the social networks will keep followers in the picture daily throughout the relay.
Spanning timelines, diverse cultures and peoples, Beaumont will provide a picture of the modern Commonwealth ahead of the Commonwealth Games in July 2014.
Beaumont, who has previously cycled the world as well as traversed the Americas and rowed the Arctic, said: “No matter where I have travelled in the world or what I have been doing there, it is always the people I meet who make it special for me.
“I am particularly looking forward to following the Queen’s Baton as it travels around the globe giving me a chance to meet some of the two billion people who make up the Commonwealth.
“It is such a privilege to be part of one of the greatest traditions of the Commonwealth Games and to be able to immerse myself in the diversity of the cultures which form this unique group of interconnected nations.
“I am really looking forward to setting off on this journey and reporting back via the BBC.”
As well as a diverse range of broadcast activity, video updates on the journey will be available online with a further range of online and broadcast activity as the baton reaches the UK, with events across the country, and into the home straight in Scotland.
There will also be a monthly documentary produced for BBC Scotland, the BBC News Channel and BBC World News, which will start in November.
It all forms of the BBC’s comprehensive coverage of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games which the corporation will cover exclusively live on TV and radio next summer.
Sophie Raworth presents live coverage of the The Queen’s Baton Relay launch from Buckingham Palace as the Queen launches the baton relay that will take her message around the world, ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
BBC One’s coverage will be simulcast on the BBC News Channel – starting at 10.45am on Wednesday, October 9 – as well online via the BBC website.
BBC World News will also broadcast the ceremony for worldwide viewers, while Radio 5 live will keeps listeners up to date with the latest developments.
Wednesday 9th October
The Queen’s Baton Relay Launch
LIVE: 10.45am-12.00pm BBC One / BBC News
