Commonwealth Games heading to Delhi

The Commonwealth Games, the third largest multi-sport event in the world, will be hosted this year in Delhi.  Of the seventy-one countries that make up the Commonwealth, only six have had perfect attendance at the games. Nonetheless, the traditional passage of the baton through all its member nations is a feat that sees athletes and organizers alike traveling the breadth of the former empire. News fives Isani Cayetano was at Stella Maris when the athletes arrived.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The team arrived in Belize City today accompanied by a caravan of cyclists led by Byron Pope who carried with him the symbolic baton commissioned by the Queen of England. John Hoskins is the Vice President of the Commonwealth Games Federation for the Americas Region.

John Hoskins, VP, Commonwealth Games Federation

John Hoskins

“We’re halfway through the region because we’ve done Guyana, we’ve done Falklands and we’ve done St. Helena. We go from here to Bermuda and then Canada and then it goes off to Australia and then does all the Oceania and Asia before it goes back to Delhi for the final journey for about three months through India to the opening ceremony where the message will be read.”

Interestingly the Special Olympics Committee played a crucial role in receiving the baton.

Alan Auil, Chairman, Special Olympics Committee

“The baton that’s coming into Belize today is for the Olympic organization in Belize that is headed by Mr. Ned Pitts.  But Mr. Pitts invited Special Olympics to be a part of the carrying of the torch and so he asked that we have our athletes and we included Michael Graham was the one who received the torch and Michael Graham won a gold medal at the World Games in Shanghai a couple of years ago.”

Present to receive the baton for the city of Belize was Mayor Zenaida Moya-Flowers.

Zenaida Moya-Flowers, Belize City Mayor

“The Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games is a significant one in terms of participating with all our Commonwealth brothers and sisters.”

The event was first held in nineteen thirty under the title British Empire Games. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.