BOXING champion Lee Selby and pupils from three schools lined Barry Island Promenade for a leg of the Queen’s Baton Relay.

The event sees a baton containing a message from the Queen travel around nations competing in the Commonwealth Games before reaching the Gold Coast where the 2018 Games will take place. After setting out from Buckingham Palace, the relay visited Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas before heading back to Europe.

And Barry Island featured on Tuesday as one of the locations during a four-day tour of Wales – in a leg the Vale council helped organise. Pupils from High Street, Gladstone, and Ysgol Bro Morgannwg’s primary schools packed onto the Island for the event which was also attended by TV presenter Lucy Owen and Vale council leader Cllr John Thomas.

They got a chance to hold the baton, made using macadamia wood and reclaimed plastic sourced from Gold Coast waterways, and watch as local lad Mr Selby and others including Barry Town United manager Gavin Chesterfield and Vale She Rallies tennis ambassador, Penny Mickelsen.

Mrs Mickelsen said she felt honoured and humbled to be part of such an historic event.

She added: “I love the fact that such an international sports event is being brought right into the heart of the local community and engaging people in sport on their own doorsteps.”

Vale council worker John Nethercott, who won gold and bronze medals in respective 1,500m and 800m events at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, also took part. After continuing its tour of Wales, the baton will head to Asia and Oceania and end up in Queensland for the start of the Commonwealth Games in April.

Cllr Thomas said: “It was wonderful to see the Queen’s Baton Relay visit the Vale as part of its journey around Wales this week. The fact such a prestigious event felt Barry Island should feature along its route proves how iconic the resort is, not just in Wales, but internationally.”