COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010 - QUEEN"S RELAY BATON HANDED OVER

BATON HANDED OVER TO INDIAN PRESIDENT

Queen Elizabeth handed over the baton to the Indian President Ms Pratibha Patil. The baton as described earlier on the site is a highly advanced gadget in itself with sensors to track the runner's pulse and a leaf shaped message from the Queen made in 18-carat gold. The baton was finally passed on to the first sportsman Abhinav Bindra winner of an Olympic Gold Medal in the last Olympics for shooting. There were a total of 11 sportspersons who handled the baton including famous cricketer Kapil Dev. Mike Fennel the leader of the Commonwealth Games Federation, made a speech in which he indicated that it was time to look ahead and not to look back as preparations pick up momentum in order to finish on time by October 2010. India's Sports Minister claimed that all issues have been resolved and also met MIke Fennell with an assurance that India would host good games and that the entire country was behind the efforts.

After Suresh Kalmadi of the Indian Organising Committee called out for the sacking of the CGF CEO Mike Hooper, there now seems to be a status quo after Kalmadi met with Mike Fennell before the Queen's Baton Relay. Fennell had strongly supported Hooper and said nothing doing to any change in CEO for the CGF. Fennell had also urged for attention to be brought back to the issues facing the preparations for the Games