DIMAPUR, JULY 24 (MExN): After traversing nine different states of the country, the official baton of the 19th Commonwealth Games 2010 finally landed in Nagaland Saturday, July 24. The baton has an encrypted message from the Queen to the athletes which will be read out on the day of the Games’ opening in New Delhi on October 3, 2010.
The Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) was jointly received at the Dimapur airport by Nagaland’s Lok Sabha MP, C.M. Chang and assembly legislators Doshehe Y Sema, Naiba Konyak, Azheto Zhimomi besides representatives from the state’s different sports associations at 7:30 am today.
Coming from Arunachal Pradesh via Guwahati by flight the Relay was carried afloat by the head of the QBR Committee Lt. Gen (retired) Raj Kadyan. He was accompanied by Lt. Col. KS Banshtu, director, QBR; Shruti Mannan, project officer and a host of other contingent members.
From the airport the Relay team was accorded a ‘tribal guard of honour’ to the Circuit House, Walford. After a brief halt for breakfast, the baton made a symbolic round of the Kachari Rajbari nearby and formally flagged off from there. The relay route covered Deluxe Point via the New Flyover, Clock Tower via Holy Cross junction, Khermahal and finally culminated at the DDSC stadium.
The team then left for Kohima by road where another Relay is scheduled July 24 enroute to Imphal, Manipur. The QBR has already traversed Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the north east. After Manipur it will touch Mizoram and Tripura and move to the mainland via West Bengal.
Six sixty four millimeters in height, the Queen’s Baton is a triangular section of aluminum twisted into a helix shape and then coated with coloured soils collected from all the regions of India. It has a number of technological features including: “the ability to capture images and sound, Global positioning system, Embedded light emitting diodes (LEDs) which will change into the colours of a country’s flag whilst in that country and a text messaging capability so that people can send messages of congratulations and encouragement to the baton bearers throughout the relay”.
