Students to add colour to Queen’s Baton Relay

With the city rolling out red carpet for the Commonwealth Games, the Delhi government has roped in schoolchildren to add that extra zing to the opening ceremony.

Students from various schools across the city will participate in the cultural presentation during the opening ceremony of the Games — the Queen’s Baton Relay — on October 3 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Students from 70 government schools, six government-aided schools and 16 private schools have already been auditioned between February 8 and February 20.

Nearly 50 students of Classes VII, VIII and X were selected from each of these school and they are now undergoing training for the ceremony, officials said.

The children were selected by special choreographers appointed by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.

“We decided to select children from the age group of 14-16 years,” an Education department official said.

Lalit Bhanot, General Secretary of the organising committee, said, “We had our team of special choreographers to take auditions.”

Some of the private schools where auditions took place are Delhi Public School-R K Puram; DPS-Mathura Road; St Mark’s Girls Senior Secondary School- Meera Bagh; Ryan International School-Rohini and New State Academy Senior Secondary School in Pitampura.

“We went for students who were tall and physically, mentally and medically fit to participate in the event,” the Education department official added.

After training, rehearsals will begin in April and continue till October. “For first three months, the rehearsals will take place near their respective schools and later combined rehearsals will be held at a place identified by the organising committee, most likely at Army Polo ground near Dhaula Kuan, from July to September,” the official said.

The rehearsals will finally be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the last week of September