Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II launched the 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay, a Games tradition that celebrates, connects and excites communities from across the Commonwealth during the build up to the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022.

The Relay began at Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty placing Her message to the Commonwealth into the Baton.

It, now, will be taking on an incredible 294-day journey through all nations and territories of the Commonwealth, arriving back in England in July 2022.

The Baton will be travelling an epic international route, spanning an impressive 269 days, spending between two and four days in each nation or territory, covering approximately 90,000 miles (140,000 kilometres), having over 7,500 Baton-bearers trusted with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to carry the Baton. It will then visit all 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth yet will travel almost half the distance than the previous Gold Coast Queen’s Baton Relay in a bid to reduce the carbon footprint.

After stopping off at the Falkland Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man in first three weeks of June 2022, the Relay will have an extended duration of five days in Scotland, four in Northern Ireland, five in Wales and 25 days covering the length and breadth of England. The global journey will conclude at the Birmingham 2022 Opening Ceremony where the final Baton-bearer will return the Baton to Her Majesty The Queen.

The Baton was conceived in an innovative West Midlands collaboration that fuses art, technology, and science and champions the individuality in humanity and celebrates bringing people together. With Birmingham 2022 making history by being the first major multi-sport event to award more medals to women than men, the strength and fortitude of women across the Commonwealth is celebrated throughout the design of the Baton.

Enhanced with cutting-edge technologies, the Baton will capture data and stories from across the Commonwealth, shining a spotlight on grassroots innovation and celebrating the people driving change within their communities. The Baton features LED lighting and a heartrate sensor that display the heartbeats of Baton-bearers.