India has received the commonwealth games baton amid glittering ceremony at the Buckingham palace here. Elizabeth II has handed over the baton to India's President Pratibha Patil in presence of organizers and athletes.
Patil then passed on the Baton to India's sports minister M.S. Gill, who handed it over to Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Kalmadi then handed over the baton to the first baton-bearer Abhinav Bindra, India's first individual Olympic gold medallist.
The other baton-bearers were Sebastian Coe, Kapil Dev, Sania Mirza, Mikha Singh, Kelly Holmes, Monty Panesar, Vijender Kumar, Misha Grewal, Sushil Kumar, Susan Gilroy, Karnam Malleshwari, Dilip Tirkey and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.
The Baton will now traverse the length and breadth of the Commonwealth for 240 days, visiting all of the other 70 nations, before embarking upon a 100 day tour of India.
The Baton will have travelled for 340 days and covered in excess of 190,000 kilometres, on many different modes of transport - from bicycle and boat to hot air balloon, steam train and even on an elephant, conveying the Queen's message to its final destination Delhi.
The Queen's Baton 2010 Delhi dimensions:
Height : 664 millimetres Width : 86 millimetres - top Width : 34 millimetres - base Weight : 1,900 grams
The technology used for making baton for Commonwealth Games :
The Queen’s Baton 2010 Delhi is a fusion of handcrafted elements interplayed with a precision engineered body, and ornamented with an intricate hand layered soil pattern. The shape and design of the baton is created using a triangular section of aluminium which has been twisted in the form of a helix and then coated with a diverse range of coloured soils collected from all corners of India.
