Karnataka - Belgaum   

Delay in arrival of YBR disappoints schoolchildren

Belgaum: A large number of schoolchildren, who lined up to greet the “Youth Baton Relay” (YBR) of Common Wealth Games here on Saturday, had to return home disappointed because of the delay in the arrival of the team.

The relay was introduced by the Common Wealth Games to be held in Pune from October 12 to 18 with a view to expressing solidarity with the “Save the Tiger” campaign and Green Games initiatives. It was flagged off at the Delhi University on August 1 and scheduled to reach Pune on October 8 after covering nine States.

It was to enter Karnataka on Saturday. A reception was planned at Visvesvaraya Technological University at 3 p.m. after a similar reception at Khanapur. But the relay team arrived in Khanapur around 6 p.m., according to the police.

In Belgaum, schoolchildren were lined up all along the route of the relay, particularly from Udyambag to Rani Channamma Circle. They waited from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. in the rain and returned home.

Sources said the relay team would camp in the city on Saturday night and “run” in the city on Sunday morning before leaving for Nippani, Kagal and Kolhapur in Maharashtra.

The sources said that the relay team collected water en-route from every river and a sapling from the Delhi University to Pune University. The water collected along with water brought by athletes of 71 Commonwealth nations would be used at the Opening Ceremony to create a “Fountain of Youth”.

A “Garden of Youth” would be created by planting the saplings collected by the team and those brought by 71 participating nations at Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports City, Balewadi.

The baton had been designed to represent the Green Games and included a water collecting device. As part of the celebrations and ceremonies on route, water from each location would be collected.

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