SAINT LUCIA has been designated as stop No.23 for the Queen’s Baton Relay which arrives at the George F.L. Charles Airport on Wednesday and begins a three-day tour ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
The QBR’s three-day itinerary was released to the media on Thursday at a press conference held at the Saint Lucia Olympic Committee’s Barnard Hill headquarters.
The Baton, the Commonwealth’s version of the Olympic torch, has travelled over 200,000 miles and visited 22 countries, including Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa, since it began its journey from Buckingham Palace on March 13, Commonwealth Day.
In the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago was first to lay hands on it, followed by Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Lucia. The QBR’s next stop is Barbados.
President of the SLOC and Saint Lucia’s Representative on the Commonwealth Games Association, Fortuna Belrose, will receive the QBR on arrival from a convoy which is accompanying the QBR from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
According to SLOC media spokesperson, Ryan O’Brian, and 1st Vice President, Lyndon Cooper, the QBR and an entourage will arrive at approximately 4:15 p.m. at G.F.L. Charles Airport, where police out-riders will escort the QBR and a number of national athletes down Nelson Mandela Drive and around the roundabout into La Clery, stopping briefly at the New Olympic House.
All 20 national sports federations under the SLOC banner are likely to participate in the journey.
The parade continues along the playing field, turning right at Hillside Plaza and turning right by the Maranatha Seventh-Day Adventist Church into L’Anse Road, turning left onto Sans Souci Bridge, right on to Jeremie Street, continuing to Manoel Street into Faux-a-Chaux, up the La Toc Road and ending at Government House.
O’Brian said, “It is something to take pride of as the Baton carries a message from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth throughout its journey, which will be open and read at the opening of the Games. Most of the affiliates who see the significance of it get their athletes ready along the various routes.”
The following day, the QBR team will leave AubergeSeraphine Hotel from 8:00 a.m. and proceed to St. Joseph’s Convent, Entrepot Secondary, the Johnsons Home on the Old Morne Road, the Missionaries of Charity at Hospital Road, and Ciceron Secondary, before breaking for lunch at 1:00 p.m.
After lunch, the convoy will make the following stops: the graves of Saint Lucia’s two Nobel laureates Sir Derek Walcott and Sir Arthur Lewis at Morne Fortune, Constitution Park, Castries Market, Vigie Multi-purpose Sports Complex and the Rodney Heights Aquatic Centre.
On Friday, the QBR will leave AubergeSeraphine Hotel at 8:30 a.m. and head to La Ressource Primary School in Vieux Fort, then to Moule-a-Chique Lighthouse, Laborie Boys Primary, Choiseul Secondary School and back to Castries via the west coast road.
During the visit, it will be in the sole custody of the Commonwealth Games convoy accompanying the QBR to the 71-nations of the Commonwealth.
O’Brian said the QBR will be the most accessible yet, not just passing through, but spending quality time in each Relay community, thereby giving Saint Lucians the opportunity to have a memorable experience with the Baton and share the dream of the QBR and Gold Coast 2018.
