MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

M2006 Games Queen's Baton en route to Falklands

The Queen's Baton to mark the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia next year, leaves Bermuda for the Falkland Islands on Saturday.

Festivities in Bermuda will last two days beginning Thursday with the official presentation of the Baton to Governor Sir John Vereker by Bermuda Olympic Association president and regional vice-president of the Commonwealth Games Federation John Hoskins and Melbourne-bound athletes Arantxa King and Latroya Darrell.

Both athletes, gold and silver medal winners at the Junior Pan-Am Championships in Windsor, Ontario, last month, are part of the 30-strong team who will represent Bermuda at next year's Games in Melbourne.

On Friday, the Baton's journey begins with the obligatory visit to tourist sensation Johnny Barnes in the morning before a presentation to Premier Alex Scott by Commonwealth triathlete Kris Hedges.

The Baton will be then paraded downtown to City Hall for a presentation to Sports Minister Dale Butler and Hamilton Mayor Lawson Mapp.

The ultra-modern baton, the Commonwealth version of the Olympic torch, has been doing pre-Games tours since 1958 but is reaching many members including the distant Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, for the first time as part of its 180,000 km, 71-nation journey lasting one year and a day.

The Baton travels accompanied by its four-man entourage; a photographer ?who has been sending images to the main Commonwealth website from around the globe? a security officer, a Melbourne Police officer, an administrator and a publicist.