Rankin wishes Sri Lanka team at Commonwealth games success
Wednesday, 23 July 2014 00:00
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In view of the start of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives John Rankin issued this statement yesterday.
“The Commonwealth Games start in Glasgow on 23 July, bringing together sports men and women from across the Commonwealth. As I’ve seen for myself in Sri Lanka, and as we saw at the London Olympics and Paralympic Games two years ago, sport is a wonderful way of uniting young people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds in celebration of all that they have in common, rather than what divides them. I wish the Sri Lankan team every success at the Games in my home city of Glasgow.”
The 2014 Commonwealth Games (officially the XX Commonwealth Games) will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 23 July to 3 August 2014. It will be the largest multi-sport event ever held in Scotland with 4,900 competing athletes, although the country previously hosted the 1970 and 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
Glasgow and Abuja (Nigeria) bid to host the Games. The final decision on the host city of the 2014 Commonwealth Games was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 9 November, 2007 at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly, attended by all 71 Commonwealth Games member associations. Glasgow got 47 votes; Abuja, 24.
There will be 71 participating nations at the 2014 Commonwealth Games with approximately 4,900 competing athletes making it one of the largest Commonwealth Games staged to date. A total of 17 sports and 261 medal events will be contested. A record 22 para-sport events will be contested in five different sports, including para track cycling which will be held for the very first time.
Clyde, a thistle named after the river which flows through the centre of Glasgow, is the official mascot of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The Queen’s Baton Relay is one of the greatest traditions of the Commonwealth Games.
The Commonwealth Games equivalent of the Olympic Torch, it was introduced at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales in 1958.
The relay traditionally commences at Buckingham Palace. The Queen places her message to the athletes within the baton. The baton is then passed on to the first honorary relay runner and from there its journey officially begins. The relay ends at the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. It is here that the Queen, or her representative, is given the baton and the hidden message is read aloud officially declaring the Games open.
The Glasgow 2014 Queen’s Baton Relay visited all 71 nations and territories of the Commonwealth over 288 days and 190,000 km, including travelling throughout Scotland in the lead up to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Baton was in Sri Lanka from 19-21 October, 2013.
