Gold Medal Winning Performance By Tan Sixin of China at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games
Nothing is more representative of the Olympic Games than a female gymnast jumping through the air. You have probably seen this on television hundreds of times. It represents grace and power at the same time. The female gymnasts are probably the stars of this Youth Olympic Games and are probably the very reason why there are so many people watching the games this time around. The balance beam final is next.
Women's Gymnasts Presenting Themselves to the Judges
The balance beam is a women’s only event. It basically consists of the female gymnast walking along the 4 inch wide beam performing jumps, sommersaults and a lot of graceful moves. Naturally, as with any gymnastics event, the landing counts a lot. Incidentally, the balance beam is notorious for being the most feared aparatus of female gymnasts and with good reason. At four inches wide, there is not much room for mistakes. Doubtless, they probably have fallen from the beam countless number of times, which is why this event requires the utmost concentration.
Practice Round for the Gymnasts at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games
Once again, the competitors were mostly from Europe with the exception of China, naturally which is a power in gymnastics. The audience also knows to be quiet with when the competition is going on. To take my much needed photos, I needed to set the camera to a manual with a very high shutter speed to be able to freeze the gymnasts in mid-air. Since I only had a puny kit lens, I do not have the luxury of using a lower ISO setting for a cleaner image. Also, since the gymnast moves around, a lot, I need to set my camera to burst mode such that it can take a lot of photos in succession. This is best, since I don’t know when the gymnast will be performing an impressive move.
Carlota Ferlito's Performance at the Balance Beam Competition at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games
Amusingly, the rest of the audience also have the same idea. The hall was really quiet when the gymnast was performing so you can clearly hear the burst of shots coming from the other cameras in the hall. Flash is forbidden for obvious reasons. Each move of the gymnast, each jump is followed by hundreds of shots in quick succession. I realized that although my camera and keep up with the burst of activity. It takes a lot of time to save with my puny “hi-speed” compact flash card. I didn’t bother getting those new really high speed cards since I never needed to take a burst of shots – until now. It took me almost a minute to fully save the shots I taken for one gymnast. I was very anxious to see the next gymnast preparing when my camera was still writing to the card.
Tan Sixin Winning the Gold Medal in the Balance Beam
I didn’t miss any action though as my card was able to complete before the next competitor. The competition also had its share of falls as some favorites literally crashed out of the finals. In the end, the finals was won by Tan Sixin from China. It was quite tiring to be continuously following the gymnasts every move. I just wished that I had move locations but the other good location was already packed to the rafters. Another wish is that I should have borrowed an 2.8 lens for this. That way I can get faster shots and better quality. Oh well, I was still happy with what I got though.
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