TWO young athletes from Camelsdale were selected to take part in the Queen's jubilee baton relay last Saturday.
The baton was on the latest leg of its journey to next month's 17th Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Grant Usher (10) from New Road, and Laura Vanes (12) were chosen to be two of the 5,000 runners to carry the baton which travelled across the south of England from Stonehenge, through West Sussex and on to Brighton.
Accompanied by police outriders and a convoy of vehicles, which added to the excitement, Grant, a Camelsdale School pupil, made his run through Lavant, near Chichester.
It was doubly exciting for the youngster, who got to do "a double run" after another runner failed to turn up.
"It was a really good experience," said Grant.
Laura, from Marley Combe Road, has already got her tickets booked for an athletic day with her family at the games, which start on July 25. She picked up the baton in Chichester for her 440-yard run past Chichester Cathedral.
A pupil at Midhurst Intermediate School, Laura said she was thrilled to be chosen.
"I was so lucky to be picked and felt really proud," said Laura, who is a member of Chichester Athletics and Runners' Club.
"I had to put one hand underneath the baton and hold it as high as possible," said Laura, who hopes not only to run in the Commonwealth Games one day but maybe even the Olympics.
For Laura, as well as a day to remember on Saturday when all her family turned out to cheer her on, she had more reason for celebrations on Wednesday, after winning the 1,500 metre race in the West Sussex Schools' Athletic Meeting, at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth.
The baton, which weighs 1.69 kg, measures 71 cm long, also shows the carrier's pulse rate.
It contains a message which will be read by the Queen at the opening of the Commonwealth Games.