{"id":10462,"date":"2022-07-27T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/?p=10462"},"modified":"2022-09-12T14:15:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T14:15:20","slug":"lenny-named-batonbearer-at-birmingham-2022-commonwealth-games-and-host-of-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/lenny-named-batonbearer-at-birmingham-2022-commonwealth-games-and-host-of-opening-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenny named Batonbearer at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and host of Opening Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo Credit: SWNS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lenny Henry will be one of the hosts of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony tomorrow night.  The Opening Ceremony will show the best of Birmingham\u2019s creative minds and best-loved talent, opening the Games with spectacle and emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier today Comic Relief founder Sir Lenny Henry carried the prestigious Birmingham 2022 Queen\u2019s Baton as part of its 90,000-mile journey around all 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Lenny ran with the Baton through Birmingham, the host city of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games this summer. His journey through Victoria Square toward the end of its 294-day journey on the eve of the highly anticipated Commonwealth Games kicking off. The Queen\u2019s Baton Relay will come to a close the tomorrow at the Opening Ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Lenny was invited to be a Batonbearer to celebrate Sport Relief being an official charity partner of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Comic Relief launched the first ever Sport Relief 20 years ago and thanks to the great British public, has raised an incredible \u00a3419million so far to help change lives in the UK and around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Lenny said: <\/strong>\u201cThe chance to carry (via jogging and walking!) the Queen\u2019s Baton on the final leg of its journey fills me with massive pride, especially when I think of how far it\u2019s travelled over the past nine months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added: <\/strong>\u201cIt has crossed land, sea and air to cover every corner of the Commonwealth, including my parent\u2019s home of Jamaica, and all the way to Birmingham City Centre (just down the road from Dudley where I got my first humungous break); and carried all the way by inspirational individuals whose stories have blown me away. Hats off to everyone who has taken part!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sport Relief is an official charity partner of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, alongside United By 2022 and the Commonwealth Sport Foundation, and hopes to raise money this summer to help change lives for the better. Money raised will go towards important causes including tackling inequality, improving mental health and helping young people survive and thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prince of Wales will deliver a speech during the Opening Ceremony, taking place at the newly redeveloped Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, during which His Royal Highness will read The Queen\u2019s message for the Commonwealth Games. The Queen\u2019s message was placed into the Commonwealth Games Baton by her Majesty on October 7 2021 at Buckingham Palace. The Games will be the biggest sporting event to be held in the UK since London 2012, and will see athletes from across the Commonwealth compete in 19 sports and eight Para-sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To find out how you can get involved in Sport Relief this summer, visit: comicrelief.com\/sportrelief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lenny Henry will be one of the hosts of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony tomorrow night.  The Opening Ceremony will show the best of Birmingham\u2019s creative minds and best-loved talent, opening the Games with spectacle and emotion. Earlier today Comic Relief founder Sir Lenny Henry carried the prestigious Birmingham 2022 Queen\u2019s Baton as part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Lenny named Batonbearer at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and host of Opening Ceremony ","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10462"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10472,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10462\/revisions\/10472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lennyhenry.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}