Queen's Baton Relay tours Greater Manchester - visiting the home of one of Commonwealth Games' newest sports

The Queen's Baton Relay has passed through Greater Manchester this weekend to mark the upcoming Commonwealth Games, stopping off at the grassroots home of one of the newest sports being featured in the competition.

With just 11 days to go until more than 5,000 athletes from 72 Commonwealth nations compete in the 2022 games in Birmingham, the prestigious Queen's Baton Relay is on its final leg, having toured through a number of Commonwealth countries over the last few months, including Singapore, Mauritius, and Canada.

The baton, which contains a message from the Queen that's going to be read out at the Games' opening ceremony, first came to London for five days in June as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, before jetting off to the Falkland Islands. It left the South Atlantic for the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, before touring Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales and returning back to England on July 4 for a final 25-day tour of the nation.

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This weekend the baton was in Greater Manchester, visiting Bolton, Salford, Stockport, and Wigan before heading off to Knowsley. On Sunday morning, the baton headed to Belle Vue Leisure Centre to mark the sport of basketball ahead of the competition. As well as being a legacy venue from the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, Belle Vue Sports Village is a key site for 3x3 basketball, one of the newest sports being featured in the competition.

The National Basketball Performance Centre is the home of Ball Out, a grassroots organisation for 3x3 basketball which uses just half the court, with three players on each team trying to score through the same hoop as their opponents. It's a vital site for the