World Rope Skipping Championships 2010
Seldom do you see the energy, skill and enthusiasm that was on display at Loughborough, England, today Saturday 31st March, when the World Rope Skipping Championships came to town.It was a truly international event, with participants from as far afield as Japan, USA, Australia and Macau taking part. It's an 8 day event , and today saw the Male Teams championship and the Open Teams (mixed) championship being decided.
The 8 days of the event comprise junior categories for 12-14 year olds in the World Youth Tournament, 15-17 year olds male and female championships, and any age open championships. In the team competitions, 6 events are judged, the Single Rope Speed, Double Dutch Speed Relay, Single Rope Pair Freestyle, Single Rope Team Freestyle, Double Dutch Single Freestyle and Double Dutch Pair Freestyle.The pairs Double Dutch is probably the most spectacular of the disciplines. A team of 4 takes part, with at least 2 (but often 3 or 4) spinning the ropes as the others do all manner of acrobatics between them. The speed is breathtaking, as is the athleticism. In the shot below you can see the Australian team, who won the overall Open Teams title, skipping whilst handstanding on one hand. Incredible!
The American team were particularly spectacular, with a very polished and well practiced set of routines that had the crowd on their feet.
After a packed non-stop day, the Belgian men Stijn Geiregat, Jonas Vermeulen and twins Willem Tack and Wouter Tack took the overall Male Teams title, and the Australian mixed team of Luke Boon, Jake Eve, Kristin Morris, Aimee Devlin and Bonnie Somers won the Open Teams title.
Using a Canon 1D IV and 1DIII, most of the action was shot with a 70-200 2.8 lens and some wide shots with a 17-40. No flash was allowed except for at the medal ceremonies. Thankfully the arena was fairly well lit, allowing exposures of 1/800th to 1/1000th at ISO 3200 and f/2.8. The new Lightroom 3 has updated noise reduction algorithms which are far better than previous versions, so going up to ISO6400 is no problem these days.All the results and more are available at www.rs2010.org.Click here for the full SLIK images gallery.Click here for the slideshow of the full gallery.