The Birmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay will visit Walsall on Saturday 23 July on its way to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games at the end of the month.
To mark the occasion Walsall Council is organising events at Walsall Gala Swimming and Fitness Centre and Walsall Arboretum.
From noon Walsall Gala Swimming and Fitness will be hosting an Aquatics day where young people can come and take part in a free learn to swim session or have a go at diving and artistic swimming. This will be followed by a spectacular display by Walsall Artistic Swimming Club. The highlight of the display will be the arrival of the Queen’s Baton relay around 17:50pm. Taking part in the display will be GB International Robyn Swatman, who is currently National Junior and Senior Champion for Artistic Swimming. Members of the public can book free children’s tasters and spectator tickets through the Walsall Leisure website.
From 4.00pm a Community Festival is being held in Walsall Arboretum with many sports clubs providing ‘come and try it’ activities and entertainment provided by music and dance groups. Many Commonwealth Games sports will be on offer including gymnastics, athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, hockey and cycling. There will also be football, running clubs, Aikido, table tennis, canoeing on the lake, gym equipment and live classes provided by the council’s leisure services team. The Queen’s Baton Relay will arrive around 6.15pm and be relayed throughout the Arboretum by 12 Batonbearers.
One of them is Michael Elwell, from Darlaston, who has been a dedicated volunteer of Walsall Arboretum parkrun since it began in 2012. Michael and his wife Ursula have become the welcoming face of the 5km run and help set up and take down the course each Saturday and have both managed to achieve the huge milestone of running 500 parkruns.
Residents are encouraged to attend the afternoon community festival and stay for the arrival of The Queen’s Baton and line the route along the Arboretum paths to cheer on the Batonbearers. The route will begin at 6.17pm at the Grange car park off Broadway North, passing the trim trail and play area, before entering the historic Victorian core of the park. From here it will pass in front of the bandstand and clock tower, finishing on centre green by the visitor centre at 6.44pm. Celebrations will continue into the evening on centre green with food, drink and entertainment.
Councillor Garry Perry, Deputy Leader for Resilient Communities said:
“This is shaping up to be a great event and I encourage residents to come along to ‘Celebrate the Relay’, cheer on our Batonbearers and take part in some of the activities on offer.
“As well as cheering on Mike, I hope people will come along to support Walsall’s very own golden girl, swimmer Tully Kearney MBE from Aldridge, who won Silver and Gold at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.”
Tully will be the last Walsall Batonbearer of the day.
