Queen's Baton Relay
The Queen's Baton Relay is a relay around the world held prior to the beginning of the Commonwealth Games. The Baton carries a message from the Head of the Commonwealth, currently Queen Elizabeth II. The Relay traditionally begins at Buckingham Palace in London as a part of the city's Commonwealth Day festivities. The Queen entrusts the baton to the first relay runner. At the Opening Ceremony of the Games, the final relay runner hands the baton back to the Queen or her representative, who reads the message aloud to officially open the Games. The  Queen's Baton Relay is similar to the Olympic Torch Relay. History. The Relay was introduced at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales. No documentation of the origins has yet been found but the a similar idea had been proposed for the 1938 Sydney Games. A baton relay to commemorate the centenary of the Welsh national anthem was organised by athletics official Bernard Baldwin, who proposed something similar for the Commonwealth Games. Baldwin later founded the traditional New Year's Eve race 'Nos Galan' in Mountain Ash. Before 1998, it was usual for the relay to  begin at Buckingham Palace and then be transported to the host nation although the 1970 relay began in at Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest territory and flew to Scotland which was the only time it did not begin on English soil. In 1974, the relay started at the Queen's Norfolk residence, Sandringham. The 1990 relay also visited Australia. The Relay for the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was the first to incorporate a more expansive relay to other nations of the Commonwealth. The 2002 Commonwealth Games Relay covered over 100,000 kilometres (60,000 miles) and went through 23 nations