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Goanet mourns the passing of Cornel da Costa in London, England - Sep 10/10
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Dear QGA members,
Here is a note and links - from Goa.
This year, the Commonwealth Games come to India and will open next month
in New Delhi. So comes the Games greatest traditions, the Queen's baton,
in having been the curtain-raiser to every game since Cardiff in 1958.
The Baton is a triangular section of aluminum
twisted into a helix shape and then coated with coloured soils
collected from all regions of India. The Coloured soils are a first
for the styling of a Queens? Baton. A jewel encrusted box has been
used to house the Queen's message, which was laser-engraved onto a
miniature 18 carat gold leaf-representative of the ancient Indian
Patras. The Queens? baton is economically contoured for ease of use.
It is 664MM high, 34MM wide at base and 86MM wide at the top and
weighs 1,900 grams.
The Queen's baton has a number of technological features including:
* GPS: Through a Global Positioning System (GPS) viewers are able
to track the actual positioning of the baton a participating country
in real time. This enables the actual assessment of where the baton
is. Through this information the Commonwealth management can have
better assessment of any disruption on the relay of the baton.
* LED lighting: This is a unique and wonderful way of
exemplifying the flag of the country in which the baton is located in.
LED is a set of colorful lights that changes color in accordance with
the flag of the country the baton is located in.
* Messaging through text: The baton is embedded with a text
messaging device which enables messages to be sent to the baton for
congratulating the arrival of the baton in a participating country.
The Delhi 2010 Baton Relay was launched on 29th October 2009 at
Buckingham Palace in London, with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
handing the Baton to the Honorable President of India, Smt. Pratibha
Devisingh Patil, who in turn passed it to Dr. M. S Gill and Mr. Suresh
Kalmadi. Who passed the Baton to the first Baton bearer, Abhinav Bandar,
the Olympic air rifle champion who began the Baton's journey with a relay
around the Queen Victoria Monument?
The Baton will travel 100 days touring the 28 states of India. It will
then be taken to its final destination, the
Jawaharlal Nero Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the XIX
Commonwealth Games, where Her Majesty's message will be read aloud to
the athletes.
For more information on the Delhi 2010 Queens Baton Relay and to keep
up to date on the Batons progress please visit
http://cwgdelhi2010.org/batonrelay2010/.
http://www.olympic.ind.in/qbr.html
http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/
http://philatelynews.com/2010/india/queen%E2%80%99s-baton-relay-%E2%80%93-xix-commonwealth-games-delhi-2010/
http://www.olympic.ind.in/qbr.html
http://www.thecgf.com/qbr/
Thank you,
Mary Silveira
QGA - President
