Queen’s Baton’s Torquay travels

Queen’s Baton thrills as it travels through Torquay

COMMONWEALTH Games history was made in Torquay on Monday, as the Queen’s Baton Relay passed through the town on the way to the Gold Coast.

People lined the streets to cheer on the 16 batonbearers as they made their way from Torquay College to a community celebration at Point Danger.

Colac teenager Lucinda Hateley, nominated for her dedication to the Scouting movement, was given the honour of being the first bearer in the Torquay leg, showing off the baton (which had arrived from Queenscliff) to a crowd of pupils from Torquay College and St Therese Catholic Primary School before heading down Eton Road.

The baton was then passed from runner to runner along Beach Road – including by Aireys Inlet Music Festival founder Marty Maher past the Surf Coast Times offices – and to the Surf Coast Highway, where 1962 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Tony Strahan took over.

Mr Strahan said he was very excited that his family, including his granddaughters, were there to see him run.

“My advice for athletes going to the Gold Coast is to embrace the whole experience and just enjoy it, because you will look back and remember it for years to come and relay your fond memories onto family and friends.”

The relay travelled down the Surf Coast Highway to Bristol Road, where well-known Surf Coast postie Cameron McFarlane carried it past a number of his cheering workmates, and then to Gilbert Street.

On The Esplanade, Torquay’s Desley McKnight passed it on to Bellbrae swimming star Phoebe Mitchell, who carried the baton on the final part of the Torquay leg to the crowd at Point Danger.

Ms Mitchell said he was really happy to have been chosen for the relay and to see everyone who had come to watch. Other Surf Coast runners in Torquay included Torquay’s Christopher Hair, Aurelia Kemp, Shari Livingston and Geelong nurse Laurel Ling (her son, Cats legend Cameron Ling, was the final runner in Geelong leg on Monday afternoon) and Anglesea’s Janet Jones and Mike Martin.

A notable sports figure was 1972 Olympic cycling medallist Clyde Sefton.

As of today (Thursday), the Queen’s Baton is in Bendigo, and it is scheduled to finish its 230,000-kilometre, 388-day journey on April 4.

Click here for more relay pictures.