Patil receives Queen's Baton from Elizabeth II

BATON RELAY: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II presents President Patil with the baton to launch the Commonwealth Games.

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London: The Queen's Baton was handed over to India's President Pratibha Patil by Queen Elizabeth II in a glittering ceremony at the Buckingham Palace on Thursday.

President Patil then passed on the Baton to India's sports minister M.S. Gill, who handed it over to Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, Suresh Kalmadi.

Kalmadi then handed over the baton to the first baton-bearer Abhinav Bindra, India's first individual Olympic gold medallist.

The other baton-bearers were Sebastian Coe, Kapil Dev, Sania Mirza, Mikha Singh, Kelly Holmes, Monty Panesar, Vijender Kumar, Misha Grewal, Sushil Kumar, Susan Gilroy, Karnam Malleshwari, Dilip Tirkey and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.

The Baton will now traverse the length and breadth of the Commonwealth for 240 days, visiting all of the other 70 nations, before embarking upon a 100 day tour of India.

The Baton will have travelled for 340 days and covered in excess of 190,000 kilometres, on many different modes of transport - from bicycle and boat to hot air balloon, steam train and even on an elephant, conveying the Queen's message to its final destination Delhi.