Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
from Photographers Blog:
It’s been a hard day’s night… and I’ve been working like a ‘tog
By Darren Staples
You off again?" people say. "Ukraine? The Euros? You've got the best job in the world haven't you?"
So here I am, the man with 'the best job in the world', about to have a needle stuck in my backside by one half of the Mario brothers.
It wasn't meant to be like this.
As a day, it started like many others; up at 5am to catch my fourth of eleven flights during this tournament, bleary-eyed and grey I helped fellow photographers Eddie Keogh, Alexander Demianchuk and technician Magnus Storm load the taxi to the roof with our equipment.
But by the time I reached Kiev airport, something was wrong. I was doubled up in pain: a kidney infection, brought on by the 30 degree Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) heat and not drinking enough water I guess.
I never drink enough water. Rule #1 in this job is that toilets are often scarce. The worry of finding a convenient bush puts you off drinking.
from Photographers Blog:
Shooting practice
By Petr Josek
Yeah, yeah, yeah 4-1 loss for the Czechs against Russia in Wroclaw. The Russian fans left the city for Warsaw after that and ended up fighting Polish supporters. Wroclaw is calm and quiet. Here the fans like each other and the city center is calm and full of friendly faces. The spotlight moves on, but there is still work to be done.
After the next round the Czechs became a decisive opponent for Poland in advancing from Group A. Its a championship and the teams need to keep sharp, away from the headlines, and for photographers there are images to be made that tell the story. Eyes on the prize.
from Photographers Blog:
A different approach to Euro 2012
By Kai Pfaffenbach
Being a Reuters photographer means you travel a lot. War zones, disasters or political visits are on your list. By far the most exiting events - for me - are still the big sports events. 2012 offers a nice variety and the Euro 2012 soccer tournament will be an excellent warm up for the Olympic games to follow shortly in London.
Although I've followed the German team in previous tournaments this time it's a different approach for me to cover the tournament. With my colleagues Pascal Lauener from Switzerland, Austria's chief photographer Leo Foeger and our technician Gilles de Queiros from France I'm covering the games in Warsaw and Gdansk. With the complicated history of Poland's and Germany's relationship in mind I started this trip with different expectations and was wondering if our Polish hosts had any prejudices against Germans. Let's not forget the first shots of World War II were fired at Gdansk (then Danzig) in September, 1939.
from Photographers Blog:
Finding Funtik
By Will Webster
Who could have foreseen what the late Paul the Octopus started when he began picking the winning teams at the 2010 World Cup? Presumably he could have, he was clairvoyant. But he may have struggled to predict the psychic circus that has appeared in the last week before the opening of the EURO2012 championship: Fred the ferret, an elephant called Chitta and Kiev’s very own Funtik the pig.
Animals predicting the outcomes of sporting events are all part of various big competitions now, Sonny Wool the sheep had a good run during the rugby world cup in 2011, so it’s easy to take it all with a pinch of salt (we’ll talk about local eating habits later.) However, using animals to predict the future goes back to biblical times, doves landing on the arc gave Noah a hint of better times.
Sitting in Moscow, my first view of Funtik was Gleb’s picture of a rabid and vaguely scary looking beast. Fred the Ferret from Kharkiv has a much more furry and cheeky appeal, so why did Kiev go for a pig? 
from Photographers Blog:
The Cuban gazelle
By Desmond Boylan
A mixture of gazelle and human is the impression Dayron gave me when he took off from where I was standing on the training grounds and jumped the first hurdle. He became tiny in the lens very fast, and when he was running towards me there wasn't much time to shoot until he filled the frame.
Dayron Robles is the main sporting figure of the moment in Cuba. In his specialty event of the men's 110m hurdles, he won gold at the Beijing Olympics and is the current world record-holder.
from Photographers Blog:
Dream of gold
By Swoan Parker
Gold in Haiti should no longer be just a dream. Even before prospective mining begins in the country's northern hills, the realization of it all could be little more than one month away. Without investing millions and weighing only 52 kg (114 pounds), 21-year-old Linouse Desravines, the country’s only judoka to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics, is all it might take for Haiti to acquire gold.
Being a fan of the martial arts with secret fantasies of being a Ninja when I was a young child, I wanted to meet the country’s only athlete who is also female and would represent them in judo. I made a few calls and was put in touch with coaches Ulrick Louis-Charles and Andres Ramos Franco, both former Olympians at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Louis-Charles returned to the Games more recently as coach in Beijing.
from Photographers Blog:
Russia’s hooligans
By Maxim Shemetov
Photographing a soccer match for the first time, I realized that shooting the fans can be more interesting than covering the game itself.
We all keep up with the destinies of football clubs and the careers of soccer players. There are many parts to soccer life, however, that rarely appear on TV and on the front pages of newspapers. It's the life of people absorbed by the game - those inspiring exciting games, TV translations, as well as the construction of new stadiums.
from Photographers Blog:
At home with Hercules
By Peter Andrews
When asked which Polish athlete has a chance at the London Olympics I immediately thought of the shot put champion Tomasz Majewski.
For those who have never seen Tomasz in real life, it can be a bit intimidating. I have always considered myself tall at 192cm (6 feet, 3 inches), but when I first met Tomasz I suddenly felt very small. With a height of 2.4 meters (7 feet 10 inches) and weighing 140 kg (308 pounds), Tomasz is overpowering. He reminded me of Hercules with his long dark hair up in a pony tail. He also has a nice warm smile he puts on easily, so being around him is relaxed and easy right from the first handshake.
from Photographers Blog:
Saving the Canon 400mm f2.8
By Murad Sezer
All photographers make plans to deal with possible clashes. They are ready to protect themselves and their equipment when covering a potential riot (or a May Day demonstration as I did a few days earlier). But you don’t expect to be doing that before a soccer match, or any other sports events.
While covering the May Day protests I don't carry a camera bag or a laptop. I head out with my two camera bodies, spare memory cards, a gas mask and a wireless lan transmitter attached to the camera body to file my pictures - that’s all.. It's more comfortable and easy to cover if any riots break out. But to cover a soccer match is a different story. If it's a cup final or a decisive match like last Saturday's Fenerbahce - Galatasaray Turkish Super League Super Final, we bring along much more equipment. I pack a hardcase with a laptop, 3 camera bodies, four lenses including a 400 mm f2.8 super telephoto, remote control devices to set up a camera behind the goal, network cables, a mini tripod etc. And usually we don't even think about the safety of ourselves or our equipment. Normally during half time or at the end of the game we set our cameras down and rush to file pictures from the field or in the photographers’ working room.
from Photographers Blog:
When baseballs attack
By Darryl Webb
"I was really glad I saw it coming."
I know that statement above sounds a little confusing so allow me to explain.
I don't know how many professional sporting events I've covered in the last 20 years. Let's just say it's been a lot and in all that time I've never been hurt. There have been a couple of close calls here and there, but nothing serious until earlier this week.
Had I not seen this sphere coming toward me at a blistering speed, the end result could have been a lot worse. I'm not saying it would have been as bad as Sports Illustrated's photographer John Iacono, who was hit by an overthrown ball in 1999, shattering his jaw which resulted in two titanium plates, some wire mess and something like 20 screws. But it definitely would have been worse than a headache, a bump on the head and two hours spent at Urgent Care.
