Marvelous Baton – Commonwealth Games 2010

July 4th, 2009  |  Published in Sports, Technology  |  2 Comments








The Queen’s Baton Relay has been one of the great traditions of Commonwealth since their Cardiff edition in 1958. And for the 2010 games in Delhi, the baton is scheduled to traverse 1.9 lakh kilometers across 71 Commonwealth countries – by land, air and even sea.

Queen Elizabeth II will officially launch the Queen’s Baton relay at Buckingham Palace, London on or around October 29 this year. Her message will be displayed at the Game’s opening ceremony in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, when the baton is docked there on October 3, 2010.

It’s a Gizmo

  • The 66.4-cm baton weighs 1.9kg and has been created by Foley Design of Bangalore.
  • It carries soil from every Indian state and union territory.
  • There are three specimens of the baton, and one replica. Together, they cost Rs 91 lakh.
  • It is an interactive baton and can receive unlimited text messages.
  • It has a camera to capture images.
  • It is GPS-enabled and can be tracked down with a mere 10-meter margin of error.
  • As part of the 2010 Games green initiative, the baton can record temperatures and pollution levels of each country the baton is passing through.
  • The Queen’s message is engraved on gold leaf and encapsulated in a clear casing on the baton.

BATON DESIGN

  • Over the years, the Queen’s Baton has evolved into a powerful symbol of unity and diversity of the Commonwealth of Nations. For each Games, the host country designs a unique baton.
  • For the 2006 Melbourne Games, the baton was based on the athlete’s form – an athlete arching forward towards the finishing line. It had 71 lights, one for each member country. The Indian baton follows from the Melbourne model and there is an attempt to be interactive with the global audience using GPS technology.
  • Tracking technology will enable everyone, from school children to their grandparents, to follow the baton’s progress round the world over the internet.

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