The Queen’s Baton Relay arrived at Jewel Changi Airport on 17 January. While many airports in the world are a means to an end, Jewel Changi Airport is an attraction in itself, home to the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, the Rain Vortex.
The airport has many sustainable initiatives, for example, the skylight and reflector panels self-adjust to take advantage of natural light, while the wastewater from air handling units is recycled to irrigate the plants in the airport.
Once in the city centre, the Baton boarded a tour bus at Singapore Sports Hub and headed to Merlion Park, which features a statue of its namesake mythical creature. The merlion has a body of a fish, to represent Singapore’s fishing village origin, and the head of a lion, to pay homage to the city-state’s original name “Singapura”, which means “lion city”. It is the official mascot of Singapore.
The next stop was Chinatown where Batonbearers completed a Relay.
The following day, the Baton was relayed from Rail Mall, over the Rail Corridor, to the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) which is a partner school to the University of Birmingham (UoB), official partner of the Queen’s Baton Relay. The rail corridor is a former railway track that has now been repurposed as green community space. Alvin Ho, UoB alumnus and joint founder of digital sports organisation Fitivate, was among the Batonbearers who carried the Baton to SIM.
University of Birmingham hosted several events during the Relay’s time in Singapore, such as a webinar hosted at SIM which focused on Applied Research to Improve Sports Performance.
On the final day in Singapore, the Baton visited the Marina Barrage, a 350m long reservoir which provides flood control for the low-lying city areas and creates a freshwater lake for water storage.
Batonbearers then boarded Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to travel to the Longines Boutique in the Wisma Atria Shopping Centre. Longines is the official timekeeper of Birmingham 2022 and is an official partner of the Queen’s Baton Relay.
