FIVE South East locals were among the baton bearers during the Ararat leg of the 2018 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay last week.
The relay hit the halfway mark of its 100-day Australian journey in Victoria’s goldfields, starting day 50 in Werribee before moving further inland to Ballarat and Ararat.
Jamie McInerney of Suttontown, Alexander Guenther of Kalangadoo and Dean Berry, David Cole and Amechai Bawden of Mount Gambier represented the region as baton bearers.
Approximately 3800 people will carry the Queen’s Baton across Australia as the relay counts down to the start of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Amechai Bawden said he was delighted to receive a letter inviting him to be a baton bearer and responded “straight away”.
“I needed to respond and let them know if I would participate, so they had time to select someone else if I didn’t want to, but I was very willing,” he said.
“It was more like a jog or a walk than a run.
“Apparently I carried the baton for 200m, but it felt more like 100m – it flew by, but it was a proud moment.”
David Cole, who was born in the United Kingdom and received his Australian citizenship in 2015, travelled to Ararat with his young family.
“It was a fantastic experience – definitely something to write home about,” Mr Cole said.
“I was nominated in April 2017 and had a week to accept the nomination.
“I found out in July I had made it through to the next round in the selection process and in October I was informed that I had got the nod – it was certainly a good feeling.”
The Queen’s Baton Relay started on Commonwealth Day (March 13) last year at Buckingham Palace when the Queen placed her message inside the baton.
The baton has been passed between thousands of people for 288 days across Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
The Queen’s Baton arrives on the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony on April 4, where the Prince of Wales will remove the Queen’s message from the baton and read it aloud to declare the games open.
