Queen’s Baton Relay arrives in King's Lynn as part of 2022 Commonwealth games
It arrived at Alive Lynnsport before heading off to Great Yarmouth and Bury St Edmunds
The Queen’s Baton Relay arrived in King's Lynn yesterday morning, as part of this year's Commonwealth Games which is taking place in Birmingham.
It made the journey from Luton before heading off to Great Yarmouth and Bury St Edmunds later that morning.
"It's really good to know that you can have an effect on people's lives"
80-year-old Mick Ennis from West-Norfolk is one of the baton bearers.
He told us how he got the running bug and why it's important to him:
"From the first lockdown I had three injuries when park-run finished and I was just jogging round on the Saturday morning just to keep fit, and all my injuries disappeared. So I started to 10ks and carried on."
"There were some girls that I met this year that had never done 10k's and so encouraged her and now she does them on a regular basis and is a part of our club. It goes on and it's really good to know that you can have an effect on people's lives".
"like another grandad for my two daughters"
Wendy Fisher from Ryston Runners nominated Mick Ennis to be one of the baton bearers.
She told us why she put his name forwards:
"He be-friended me and encouraged me to run. I was 47 at the time and he was already 70 years old by then. So he encouraged me to carry on running, to start with he was running ahead of me and would tease me to try and keep up. I did catch him in the end and Mick's become a family friend after that and like another grandad for my two daughters."
"I was the girl who hated PE at school, who didn't compete at anything- who's now in a veterans league who's been running for ten years. I wouldn't have continued that if I hadn't been welcomed by Mick when I first turned up- it was him that encouraged ne to carry on running when I only ever intended to won race and I'm still running ten years later".
When did the relay start and where is it heading next?
The Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay began at Buckingham Palace on 7 October 2021, when The Queen placed Her Message to the Commonwealth into the Baton and passed it to four-time Paralympic gold medallist Kadeena Cox, who had the honour of being the first of thousands of Batonbearers to carry the Baton.
Since then, the Baton has visited Commonwealth nations and territories in Europe, Africa, Oceania. It still has further destinations in the Caribbean, the Americas, and more countries in Europe, including the Home Nations consisting of five days in Scotland, four in Northern Ireland and five in Wales, where it will finish on Sunday 3 July, before returning to England in summer for the final countdown to the Commonwealth Games.
The dates of when the Baton visits each region are:
4 July – 5 July: South West
6 July – 7 July: South East
8 July – 9 July: East of England
10 July – 11 July: East Midlands
12 July – 13 July: Yorkshire and the Humber
14 July – 15 July: North East
16 July – 17 July: North West
18 July – 28 July: West Midlands