Stunning Queen’s Baton design and Queen’s Baton Relay route revealed for Birmingham 2022

The Queen’s Baton Relay is a Games tradition that celebrates, connects and excites communities from across Commonwealth during the build up to the Games.

The Relay begins on 7 October 2021 at Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will place Her message to the Commonwealth into the Baton. The Baton then takes on an incredible 294-day journey through all nations and territories of the Commonwealth, arriving back in England in July 2022.

The Baton was conceived in an innovative Birmingham and West Midlands collaboration that fuses art, technology, and science.

The technology within the Baton is the work of BOM (Birmingham Open Media), a leading centre for art, technology and science in central Birmingham, dedicated to ‘creative innovation with purpose’.

The shape of the Baton moves away from the traditional shape seen in previous editions of The Queen’s Baton. To represent the bronze, silver and gold medals that athletes will be competing for, the Baton has been cast using accessible, non-precious metals of copper, aluminium and brass. By using aluminium forged using the traditional method of lost wax casting in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, the Baton has used the centuries of local expertise and craftsmanship that gives Birmingham its reputation as the city of a thousand trades.

Enhanced with cutting-edge technologies, the Baton will capture data and stories from across the Commonwealth, shining a spotlight on grassroots innovation and celebrating the people driving change within their communities. Fitted with a 360-degree camera, the Baton also has ‘eyes’, and a ‘brain’ which records and transmits imagery and digital information, allowing stories from Commonwealth communities to be told. GPS technology allows the Baton to be tracked on its travels.

The Baton will travel an epic international route, spanning an impressive 269 days, spending between two and four days in each nation or territory, covering approximately 90,000 miles having over 7,500 Baton bearers trusted with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Baton.

The Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay will visit all 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth yet will travel almost half the distance than the previous Gold Coast Queen’s Baton Relay in a bid to reduce the carbon footprint.

Over the course of the Relay, the Baton is set to spend Christmas Eve in the Seychelles, will bring in the New Year in the Maldives and plans to be in Jamaica over the Easter weekend.

Flying out from Birmingham Airport, the first stop on the Queen’s Baton Relay is Cyprus on 9 October.

During each visit, nations and territories will host events and activities that showcase untold stories from Baton bearers, athletes, and young people who are striving for change in their community.

The global journey will conclude at the Birmingham 2022 Opening Ceremony where the final Baton bearer will return the Baton to Her Majesty The Queen.

Cllr Ian Ward, Leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “The unveiling of the Baton design and the international route it will take really does bring into focus the fact the Games are almost upon us. I am delighted that innovation and technology from the Proud Host City of Birmingham features in the Baton, which will showcase our city’s skills and creativity to people in all 72 nations and territories that are a part of the Commonwealth Games. It is another example of how the event is much more than just 11 days of top international sport in our city.”

Read more about The Queen’s Baton and The Queen’s Baton Relay on the Commonwealth Games website.