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Lord Sebastion Coe, Chairman of London 2012, is due to visit Birmingham during the European Indoor Athletics Championships 2-4th March, and in honour of his visit and his role in securing the Olympics, he will be presented with a unique silver baton.

The baton will be made in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter by top silversmiths Crescent Silver and its embossed design has been created in partnership with local secondary school, Aston Manor. The school is rated 5th in the UK in school athletics rankings and it is the top athletics school in the West Midlands. Two of its most promising athletes and four of the school’s design students have been involved from design stage all the way through to the assaying process at The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the sponsors of the project.

Andy Munro, Operations Director of the Jewellery Quarter Regeneration Partnership said “The Quarter has a wonderful history of making famous sporting trophies and linking one of its old established businesses with a school like Aston Manor, with its fantastic sporting pedigree, seemed a natural step. We’d also like to thank The Birmingham Assay Office for their support.”

Michael Allchin, Chief Executive and Assay Master of The Birmingham Assay Office will attend the presentation on Friday 2nd March in Centenary Square.  Michael commented that The Birmingham Assay Office were delighted to donate the unique silver baton as a gift to Lord Coe.  “We are very proud of our silversmithing tradition in Birmingham and as the largest and busiest Assay Office in the world we were honoured to have the opportunity to be involved in the production of such a unique silver piece which has been hand crafted in Birmingham’s own Jewellery Quarter.”

The European Athletics Indoor Championships are at the NIA between 2nd – 4th March and is the biggest athletics event to be held in the UK before the 2012 Olympics.

Photograph available of school students involved in the project with the Baton at The Birmingham Assay Office.

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