Queen’s aura marks track legend Meares
LONDON: Australian cycling great Anna Meares told AFP being handed the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games baton for the torch relay by Queen Elizabeth II is a personal high.
The 33-year- old who won two Olympic titles and 11 world golds said receiving the baton from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace on Monday would be something to tell her grandchildren in the future.
Meares -- who was appearing in her role as an ambassador for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games which gets underway in April 2018 -- shared the duties on Monday with her great British rival and fellow retiree Victoria Pendleton.
“It was a pret ty magical experience,” she told AFP after she had appeared at the Gold Coast Games presentation at Australia House.
“The aura, the presence she has and the attention she draws, she just commands with such ease and such grace.
“You see her in pictures and moving images on television but to be actually in her presence to shake her hand and receive the baton as the first torch bearer!
“I’ve done some amazing things in my sporting career and I’m not sure much will ever surpass being the (Australian team) flag-bearer ( at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony).
“However, on both a personal experience and personal level and what thanks to sport and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games has allowed me to be in that place (with the Queen in Buckingham Palace) well the grandkids will always know about that!” — AFP