QUEEN’S BATON RELAY FOR 2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES The Queen’s Baton Relay rolled into the Broadbeach Bowls Club last month ahead of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, carried in by 1990 Commonwealth Games medallist Janelle Pallister and her daughter, a 2022 Games hopeful Lani Pallister. The swimming duo handed the baton to our 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games gold medallists Tony Bonnell and Kelsey Cottrell. The pair were honoured to be asked to represent bowls and the greater Australian sporting community; they posed for photos with the iconic GC2018 mascot Borobi, Australian Squash representatives, Deputy Gold Coast Mayor Donna Gates and a large contingent of Broadbeach Bowls Club members, many of whom were also reminiscing about their own personal Commonwealth Games experiences volunteering on home soil. The Australian Lawn Bowls Team won five gold medals and two silver medals which was a record haul at a Commonwealth Games. Queenslanders Nathan Rice, Aron Sherriff, Brett Wilkie, Jake and Grant Fehlberg, Lynne and Bob Seymour and Tony Bonnell all took home medals from those games. Barrie Lester, who now calls Queensland home, was part of Channel 7’s coverage of the baton arriving in
L-R: Kelsey Cottrell and Tony Bonnell
Queensland and got to hold the baton which is traveling across 72 nations and territories across the Commonwealth carrying the Queen’s message. For Tony Bonnell, the prospect of winning back-to-back gold medals in the Para-Lawn Bowls event in Birmingham is strong, having just made the shortlist alongside his wife Serena Bonnell to tour the UK this May. Both Tony and Serena have been training diligently at the Tamborine Mountain Bowls Club on a green that has been prepared to mirror UK conditions. On the other hand, the festivities of the Baton Relay for Kelsey Cottrell were very much about celebrating the success the Australian Lawn Bowls Team achieved in 2018, where she claimed a gold medal in the Fours with Carla Krizanic, Natasha Scott and Rebecca Van Asch, and, symbolically handing the baton over to the L-R: 2018 Fours gold medal next generation of Australian Jackaroos having made herself unavailable for 2022 winners Kelsey Cottrell, Carla Commonwealth Games selection. Krizanic, Rebecca Van Asch &
“It was a truly wonderful honour to be part of the Baton Relay alongside Tony; I have Natasha Scott vivid memories of stopping mid-way through a training session at Broadbeach to watch Brett Wilkie carry the Baton in the lead up to the Gold Coast Games. It was a goosebump moment with the whole team hovering around a phone to watch,” said Cottrell.
18 Queensland Bowler April 2022
