Sports Desk: The King’s Baton Relay will take place across Australia from 21-25 March ahead of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. The event will bring together athletes, supporters and communities and build on the excitement surrounding the Games.
A symbol of diversity and unity, the baton will be designed for the first time in 2026, with a different design for each Commonwealth region. All batons will eventually be brought together at the Glasgow 2026 Opening Ceremony. The Australian baton was designed by Kalkadoon artist Cherni Sutton, a proud First Nations woman and has worked with the Australian Commonwealth Games team since the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
The baton, which set off from Buckingham Palace more than a year ago, will conclude its Oceania leg of its world tour in Australia. It will arrive here from New Zealand before heading to the Americas, where it will also visit the Falkland Islands for the first time.
A video newscast will be released from 6am local time on 21 March, where Glasgow 2026 hopeful and para-sprinter Briseis Britain (athletics) will be presenting the King’s Baton at the Australian Centre.
On 22 March, at the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, 2024 world champion Isaac Cooper (swimming) and Birmingham 2022 bronze medallist Abbie Caldwell (athletics) will take part in a baton ride amidst coral and marine life. The day’s video newscast will be released at 7pm.
On 23 March, the public is invited to join the Tangaroa Blue Foundation, Birmingham 2022 silver medallist Serena Bonnell (bowls) and Glasgow 2026 hopeful Ruby Pass (gymnastics) in an environmental initiative in Townsville, Queensland. The initiative aims to prevent one million pieces of plastic from entering the Commonwealth’s oceans and waterways before Glasgow 2026.
The baton will travel to Admiralty House in Sydney on March 24, where it will be officially accepted by Australia’s Governor-General, Sam Mostyn. Matt Sharvington, bronze medallist at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, will hand the baton to the Governor-General. Representatives from the Oceania region, potential Glasgow Games athletes and past participants will also be in attendance.
The Australian leg will conclude on March 25 with seven-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist swimmer Arianne Titmuss taking a dip in her childhood swimming pool at the Leisure and Aquatic Centre in Launceston, Tasmania. She will be joined by budding swimmers from local clubs, who will all speak to the media.
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