WA announces finalists of Photograph of the Year award

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – With 15 days to go until the World Athletics Awards 2021, the finalists for the Photograph of the Year award have been selected.

 This year’s award will be dedicated to the memory of Jean-Pierre Durand, one of the sport’s most prolific photographers and photo chief for a number of World Athletics Series events, who died last month.

 From the 112 images that were submitted, a panel of judges – comprising Raquel Cavaco Nunes, Ivo Gonzalez, Pascal Rondeau, Akani Simbine and Katerina Stefanidi – narrowed the entries to 25 shortlisted images before deciding on the three finalists.

 Photographers from 38 countries across all six areas submitted entries for the award. The 25 shortlisted images will form part of a digital exhibition on the World Athletics Awards 2021 website that will go live  on 22 November.

 The winning photograph will be announced during the World Athletics Awards 2021 on 1 December.

About the photographers

Ryan Pierse

An award-winning Australian photographer based in the UK, Pierse has been a staff photographer for Getty Images since 2004. He has covered many major international sporting events, including Summer and Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, London, Sochi, Rio, Pyeongchang and Tokyo.

Matthias Hangst

Based in Karlsruhe, Germany, Hangst is an award-winning sports photographer who has covered 10 Olympic Games. After being an independent photographer for over 10 years, he joined Getty Images as a staff photographer in May 2014 and became chief sports photographer two years later.

Vegard Grott

Ten years after shooting his first sporting event, Grott now follows the Norwegian national athletics and football teams closely. In 2017 he became a staff photographer for Bildbyran based in Oslo, Norway.