Queen’s Baton arrives in Rwanda

THE Queen’s Baton will arrive in Kigali this evening as part of its continued relay around the Commonwealth member states in the run up to the July 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.The Baton will spend two days in Rwanda. The Queen’s Baton, an equivalent of the Olympics Torch for the Olympic Games, is expected to touch down at the Kigali International Airport aboard a RwandAir en route from Kampala, Uganda. It will then head to Musanze and Nyanza districts tomorrow before returning to Kigali (Kimisagara) on Friday.According to the Executive Director of the Rwanda Olympic Committee, Serge Mwambali, several matches involving a number of sports disciplines have been lined up to welcome the Queen’s Baton to the country. Games in karate, volleyball and basketball will be played on Friday at Kimisagara Youth Sports Centre. However, the earlier scheduled match between Rayon Sports and SC Kiyovu on Friday has been called off due to financial constraints. This will be the first time the Queen’s Baton comes to Rwanda since the country joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 2009.The Baton kicked off its African tour with a leg in Freetown, Sierra Leone, before heading to Accra in Ghana where it was received by the country’s vice president.From there, it continued its African journey to Abuja, Nigeria where it was received by President Goodluck Jonathan.The Baton was flagged off by the Queen of Britain and the Head of the Commonwealth, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, on October 19 and will travel through all Commonwealth countries and territories, covering 190,000km in 288 days before concluding its journey at the opening of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on July 23. The 2014 Games will see 4,500 athletes compete for 261 medals in 17 sports at 14 venues around Glasgow and beyond. During the past Commonwealth Games in India, Rwanda was represented by swimmers, athletes, boxers and Paralympics athletes.The 20th Commonwealth Games will be held from July 23 through August 3, just before the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games which will be run from August 16-28 in Nanjing, China.