Travelled to Berlin to cover these Championships for British Gymnastics. Enjoyed my week in Berlin and success again for Britain with Beth Tweddle capturing the Gold Medal on bars. Daniel Purvis took Bronze in the Mens All Around finals.
Beth Tweddle on Winners Podium
Daniel Purvis in action for GB
Hannah Whelan in action for GB
Marcel Nguyen in action for Germany
Further photos can be viewed and purchased at www.f2images-gymnastics.co.uk Contact f2images@gmail.com
Covered the English Championships at Stoke this weekend. Three days of packed competition with the Men and Women competing at the same time. Fenton Manor in Stoke is not the best lit venue and I found myself shooting at 2500 asa f2 at 1/400s. Not great if your trying to freeze dynamic action. Used a Nikon D3 and the new Nikon 200 F2 Lens. Keep reading how much better the D3s is in low light and this situation would be ideal for this camera. For me the D3 is limited to 3200 asa. How much better is the D3s? If you have any experience using the D3 v D3s in this type of environment please let me know if its worth upgrading!
Back to the gymnastics .This is an early season tester for many of the gymnasts. Beth Tweddle produced a new bar and floor routine and finished first on bars. It was the British Womens Champion Hannah Whelan however who took top spot in the all round competition.
The mens competition was won by Kristian Thomas finishing aheahd of Matthew Firth from the City Of Leeds Gym Club.
Photos from the event including the Juniors and Espoirs can be viewed and purchased at http://www.f2images-gymnastics.co.uk
Photos now online at http://www.f2images-gymnastics.co.uk from the Media Day at Lilleshall NSC the home of British Gymnastics.
Becky Downie trains on beam
The British Womens Senior Team
It was my intension to blog during the two weeks of the Championships in Birmingham.However the competition schedule left very little free time.
I checked into the superb apartments next to the NIA on Tuesday 20th May. With suitcases safely stowed in the apartment it was straight off to the arena to catch the final rotation of the Junior Mens podium training.
After collecting my accreditation it was off to the press room to sort out a locker and meet with British Gymnastics and UEG officials.So far so good facilities and working conditions in the press area surpassing expectations. The detailed planning by the organizing committee was already paying off. The lighting in the arena was good 2000 iso f2 1/1000s. Using the Nikon f2 lens and a D3 I captured some of the first images.Training provides a good opportunity to have a look at the gymnasts routines,noting for the competition where and when the big moves etc take place.This was an extrordinary championships in many ways. The ash cloud caused travel chaos,some of the journeys have been epic, such as the team from Finland who have driven all the way from Helsinki to Calais a trip of over 1000 miles. Others have shown the true meaning of a sporting nature with the Austrian team picking up the Slovakian team on their way and Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia travelling together.
I was covering the Championships as official photographer to both the UEG an British gymnastics.As such I had to produce images of British Gymnasts and also leading gymnasts of each nation as they competed for the individual and team medals.During qualifications competition started at 9.00am and finished at 10.00pm. Images had to be processed and sent after each round. Long days but you do get used to it! UEG published ongoing reports:
The organization and working conditions were second to none. This was proving to be a great championships in many ways.There were many highlights during the two weeks of competitionbut perhaps the most satisfying from a British piont of view was the number of medals achieved by the home gymnasts.
The GB team left the European Championships with a total of 15 medals (senior boys: team silver, individual gold, silver and bronze; junior boys: team gold, four individual golds, a silver and two bronze; senior girls: team silver, two individual golds).
That total is unprecedented, particularly the success of both the junior and senior men’s teams, who have for decades toiled in the lower echelons of world gymnastics.
The Russians won both the Junior and Senior Womens Finals. Germany won the Mens Team Final with GB winning Gold in the Junior Team event.
Below are a few photos from the Championships:
Not had much time to blog recently.I have been covering the European Gymnastic Championships in Birmingham. The event lasts over two weeks and 16 hour days are not uncommon. Two more days left of competition with the Womens Team and Individual Finals to go.The British women qualified for today’s Senior Team final in third position.
Helped by two huge scores on Bars and Floor from Beth Tweddle, Great Britain actually led the field after three rotations ahead of 2008 runners up Russia, who eventually finished in top spot ahead of defending champions Romania. The British team had a few errors on the beam in qualification and there is anticipation that if these can be omitted they could be in with a real chance of a medal.
Link to the Championship photos here http://www.photoshelter.com/c/imagelibrary/gallery-collection/Gymnastics-2010/P0000vxAt7auryLU
Link to the UEG site here http://www.ueg-gymnastics.com/
The European Gymnastics Championships for men and women is in Birmingham England this year. The event happens over two weeks starting on the 17.4.10 and finishing on 2.5.10. http://www.british-gymnastics.org/site/
I have been covering the Euros for the last 15 years as Official Photographer to British Gymnastics. This year I am also shooting the event as official UEG Photographer http://www.ueg-gymnastics.com
The venue is the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.I have photographed here on many occasions.Transport links are good and the hotel is a 5 minute walk away.A rare luxury.I will be shooting from inside the podium so the main lens camera combination will be the Nikon 200 f2 and aD3.
The Women’s Teams juniors and seniors include: 2009 World Floor Champion Beth Tweddle, British Senior Champion Becky Downie, and first time Seniors Nicole Hibbert, Danusia Francis and Niamh Rippin. The accompanying Junior Team includes Lizzie Beddoe, who finished 2nd in the All-Around in the 2009 Junior British Championships, UK Schools Games All-Around Champion Laura Mitchell, Venus Romaeo (2nd in the All-around at the British Espoir Championships), British Espoir Vault Champion Rebecca Tunney and Ruby Harrold (4th on Vault at the British Espoir Championships).
Beth Tweddle
Becky Downie
The mens line ups include 2009 World All-around Silver medallist Daniel Keatings, 2008 Olympic Pommel Horse Bronze medallist Louis Smith, and World 6th placed All-around gymnast Kristian Thomas; along with the current Under-18, Under-16 and Under-14 British All-around Champions Reiss Beckford, Sam Oldham and Frank Baines who will compete in the Junior Team.
Daniel Keatings
British Gymnastics, Men’s Technical Director, Eddie Van Hoof said: “We are very excited and looking forward to testing ourselves against the best European Teams in Birmingham. We hope to follow the individual successes from the 2009 World Championships, with success in the Team rankings. Great Britain are current Junior European Team Champions and we know we face a very tough test to retain such a high position.”
Alan Edwards www.sports-photo.co.uk http://www.f2images.co.uk
F2images Alan Edwards 
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