EAST Bradford Cycling Club coach Mike Healey will be carrying the Queen’s Baton ahead of the Commonwealth Games, 64 years after he first did it.

Like the Olympic torch relay, which Healey also took part in in 2012, the baton will be travelling all around the country, ahead of the Games getting underway in Birmingham on July 28.

Healey is pencilled in to walk around 200m along Frizinghall Road to Lister Park with the baton on July 12, having run three miles or so with it from Warwick Castle to Leamington as a teenager ahead of Cardiff’s Commonwealth Games in 1958.

The octogenarian laughed: “To get a second go is a considerable honour, and a surprise.

“I didn’t expect it, not when I’m three weeks short of 82, but I’m looking forward to it.

“It’s a change from last time, where there was no local TV or radio about, so there was no publicity and no public interest.

“My memories of last time were running three miles from Warwick Castle into Leamington and the person with me asking me to slow down, as I was 17 and full of testosterone, wanting to do it as fast as I could.

“After all that, the next day I was just back in school.”

Healey took part in the London 2012 torch relay too, and East Bradford still have the real thing.

He explained: “It was given to the club and we present a replica version to the club’s best youth team all-rounder.

“The club had to pay for the real one and that’s kept safe in the club. It’s probably our most prized possession, but even though it’s not for cycling, we’re still very proud.”

Healey still coaches youngsters at East Bradford, with the club getting set to move from their current base in Elland to a new cycle circuit at Wyke Community Sports Village imminently.

Asked what motivates him to keep doing so at 81, he said: “It’s partly for the same reason as I started, I enjoy coaching kids.

“I’ve always coached the beginners really, since I founded the kids’ section of the club in 1998, while Mandy (Parker) is the senior coach, who usually takes them on from their early teens into further development.

“She looked after the likes of Rob Scott, who wore the King of the Mountains jersey at the Tour of Yorkshire and did well on the Tour of Britain, and she also took on Gordon Benson, who competed in the triathlon at the Rio Olympics (where East Bradford were first to learn about his selection via a letter sent by Benson’s father).

“Gordon came to us when he was 12, and he could already run and swim well, but he couldn’t take a corner when he was cycling.

“But he left us very competitive, thanks to Mandy.”

Asked how proud he was of the development of the kids’ section of the club since he set it up, Healey said: “I have to be.

“I’m proud of all our winners at youth and junior level, whether that be on circuits, cyclocross or mountain biking.

“But they’ve got to enjoy it, it’s not like having to get up for swimming training at 5am, if they don’t want to race we won’t make them.

“We want them to have fun and we’ll help them all, whatever their ability.”