The official mascot for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has been revealed as Perry the Bull was unveiled.
Designed by Emma Lou, from Bolton, in Greater Manchester, who won a national competition, the mascot is named after the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, where the Alexander Stadium will host athletics events as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
An excited 10-year-old Emma said: "It feels as if I'm in a dream. I chose a bull because of the Bullring in Birmingham, and I decided to use hexagons because they are the strongest shape and the whole world depends on each other.
"I am so excited that my design will be seen by so many people."
The Birmingham Games will take place across the West Midlands from July 28 to August 8 next year and is set to be the most expensive sports event staged in Britain since the London 2012 Olympics.
Olympic gold medal winner Denise Lewis said: “I truly believed that the games would represent a ‘beacon of light’ amid the coronavirus pandemic”.
The president of Commonwealth Games England, she added: "We know there's an Olympic Games to get through first - a very different Olympics - but the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, for a lot of people, will be the end of what has happened. It is a beacon of light, probably a symbolic sign of what we've come through,"
Ian Reid, Chief Executive of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, said: "Perry is everything I hoped our mascot would be and more: bright, colourful, energetic and totally representative of modern Birmingham and the West Midlands. Perry will celebrate diversity,
community and our region's heritage as well as its future.
"From today, Perry becomes a powerful icon for Birmingham 2022 all over the world, and you'll be seeing a lot more of him during the countdown to the Games."
The mascot will also be brought to life through augmented reality allowing Facebook and Instagram users to summon an animated version and pose for pictures with him.
