Allan Wells has become the first runner to receive the Glasgow 2014 Baton from The Queen and believes it will have an even greater impact in Scotland than the arrival of the Olympic Flame in 2012.

"The reaction to the Torch Relay in Scotland was phenomenal " said Wells, a bearer in Selkirk in June last year. "I got a call from Seb Coe afterwards and told him how well it had been received.

"I do feel that we might even be able to give more to the Baton Relay. We have that opportunity with a home Games that are actually in Scotland."

Wells, the 1980 Olympic 100 metres champion, was spearking after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace that was dignified colourful and very Scottish. There was even a violinist to bring back memories of Sir Yehudi Menuhin's tour de force at the 1986 Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh

Wells' own association with the Commonwealth Games goes back over 40 years. He was a volunteer steward in Edinburgh's Meadowbank Stadium in 1970, the first time the Games were held in his home country.

"My job was to rake the long jump pit," he recalled. "In fact most of the time I was watching. Lynn Davies. He was a hero of mine I also kept an eye on the reactions of the runners in the 100 metres. The atmosphere was so tense. It was something that really inspired me. "

By the time the Commonwealth Games returned to Edinburgh in 1986, he had made such an impact on them that he was chosen to present the Baton to Prince Philip, then President of the Commonwealth Games Federation. It proved the only time Wells would wear the blue Scottish vest that summer. He was controversially left out of their team for the Games.

"I'd done the qualifying times, I even had the suitcase with all the kit, but they wanted me to prove my fitness," said Wells. "I did everything they asked me to but didn't get picked"

In 1986, Wells had been escorted into the Meadowbank Stadium by athletes Ian Stewart, Lachie Stewart, Rosemary Payne, Rosemary Stirling, boxer Tom Imrie and fencer Sandy Leckie, all gold medallists from 1970.

"When I ran in, I could hear people shouting look he's fit, he is running," said Wells. "They couldn't understand why I wasn't in the team "

Wells had won four Commonwealth gold medals over the two preceding Games and believes, to this day, that he would have enjoyed success in front of his home crowd. To prove the point he won against his main rivals in a meeting shortly afterwards. He believes that a medal in Commonwealth Games athletics remains one of the hardest to win, particularly in his own events where most expect Usain Bolt to take centre stage next year.

"It 's no garden party," said Wells. "The focus is every bit as great as at the Olympics."

Allan Wells described receiving the Baton from the Queen at Buckingham Palace as "up there with winning a gold medal"

Now almost 28 years on, Wells finds himself at the heart of the latest Commonwealth Games to be held in Scotland.

"I was probably the proudest Scot on the podium today," he said after receiving the Baton containing the Queen's Address dressed in a kilt of Ramsay tartan from his mother's side of the family. "This was up there with winning a gold medal.

"The Baton is unique, completely different to the Olympic Torch Relay. There is only one Baton. My fingerprints will be on the Baton until the end and it will be the same for everyone else."

Commonwealth Games Federation President Prince Imran Tunku called it "the world's most engaging relay ". At 288 days this time it is longer than any journey of the Olympic Flame.

The ceremony will have brought back memories for Prince Philip. He was,characteristically, fascinated by the intricacies of the new baton, so very different from the silver gilt model he had set in motion for the first such relay to Cardiff. In 1958.

Although there had been international sections before 1998, it was the journey to Kuala Lumpur which first made the handover of the Baton a spectacle in its own right. Traditional Malaysian dancers and drummers beating Kompang drums gave colour to a bright spring morning, which also happened to be Commonwealth Day and set a precedent for a cultural display at Buckingham Palace.

So too did the large escort for badminton star Punch Gunalan. In earlier years there had been a maximum of two. In 2002 for Manchester there were fireworks from the top of the Palace and for Melbourne, in 2006, even a supermodel.

Australian supermodel Elle McPherson jokes with Prince Philiip at the start of the Queen's Baton Relay for Melbourne 2006

Elle Macpherson was chosen to receive the Baton as a representative of Australia before it began its journey to Melbourne. That was a decision which would not have passed muster with Federation officials in earlier years. They insisted the "first runner should be a medallist of the preceding Games."

In recent years too, the Queen has placed herself sealed the message inside the Baton in full view of the crowd. The 2014 baton is illuminated to show the message but not the text.

The Pipes and Drums of the Scots guards and band of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland provided the music. To the strains of "A Scottish Soldier" and "Hielan Laddie", a kilt wearing Sir Chris Hoy, had brought the baton to Buckingham Palace. This had pleasant echoes of 1982 when Decima Norman, a great Australian champion from Sydney 1938, had flown from Brisbane as custodian of their baton. Then, already aged 72, she was not asked to carry it along the Mall.

The first international stopping point of the 2014 journey will be in India to acknowledge the most recent hosts. It will also recall the two most recent relays. The Baton visited the Taj Mahal in both 2006 and 2010.

Born in Hackney, a stone's throw from the 2012 Olympic Stadium, Philip Barker has worked as a television journalist for 25 years. He began his career with Trans World Sport, then as a reporter for Sky Sports News and the ITV breakfast programme. A regular Olympic pundit on BBC Radio, Sky News and TalkSPORT, he is associate editor of the Journal of Olympic History, has lectured at the National Olympic Academy and contributed extensively to Team GB publications.