April 18th, 2018
The Commonwealth Games is now well and truly over … the stories of triumph and endeavour (and a little controversy) slowly fading into history.
Personally, ‘GC 2018’ meant six weeks of photographic employment … five weeks around the country with the Commonwealth Games ‘Queen’s Baton Relay’ … and a further week covering the fourteen Commonwealth Games basketball events in Cairns for Australian Associated Press (AAP) including the visit of … ahem … ‘basketball fan’ HRH Prince Charley.
All very rewarding … and a satisfactory little ‘earner’..
The rest of this post was penned on my return from the ‘Queen’s Baton Relay’ stint back in January … but has been held over till now to satisfy any contractual requirements.
“Just back from a manic, chockers but fantastically rewarding full month criss-crossing Australia with the Commonwealth Games Queens Baton Relay … Thanks to team mate colleagues Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert and Colin McPherson (they are Scottish but I won’t hold that against them) … and the GOLDOC crew.
Commencing on the 23rd December and running (almost literally) to the tail end of January, I travelled, in order, to Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Stradroke Island, Gold Coast, Townsville, Palm Island, Gold Coast, Springbrook, Uluru, Melbourne, Warrnambool, the Great Ocean Road … and Adelaide. We took in Australia’s top sporting events … the Boxing Day ‘Ashes’ test match in Melbourne, the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race (including Taste of Tasmania) in Hobart, the Perth Cup (horses) and Hopman Cup (tennis) in Western Australia, ‘A League’ football Sydney FC V Newcastle at Allianz Stadium, the Sydney ‘Ashes’ test match at the SCG, the Brisbane International tennis (with Rod Laver, Roy Emerson et al), the Magic Millions beach horse run on the Gold Coast, the National Sports Museum at the MCG and the Tour Downunder cycle races in Adelaide … and climbed each of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (with Ian Thorpe), the Q1 building (322 metres) at Surfers Paradise and the roof of the Adelaide Oval. We also took the Queens’s Baton to Uluru, Palm Island, the Twelve Apostle’s and Springbrook National Park.
I met and worked with some wonderful people … athletes, baton bearers, the relay team members and myriads of people who showed great interest in “The Baton” … whilst catching up with many photographer colleagues at distant parts of the country. I also made the odd photograph or two … ”
Below are just three of those … made at Uluru, at Surfers Paradise (Magic Millions) and at the peak of the Sydney Harbour Bridge …
Images © Brian Cassey and GOLDOC
Aus Paralympians Off to Tokyo Olympics …
… a large chunk of the Australian Paralympic team left Cairns last night for Tokyo to compete in the Olympic Games… and I had the distinct pleasure of working with these great athletes on their last training sessions on Thursday. Thanks to Delly Carr who ‘dobed’ me in and Athletics Australia for the work.
These are just a small selection of ten of those many images made at these training sessions at Barlow Park, Cairns … the evening session especially challenging as the ‘light’ can only be described as atrocious !
I can’t stress how wonderfully down to earth and receptive these athletes are … many World Champions and previous Olympics Gold winners amongst them … despite circumstances which would floor most all of us.
In these ten images we have (top to bottom… I wish space would allow me to post more) … Vanessa Low – long jump World record holder & Olympic Gold Medalist … James Turner – 800 metre World Record & Olympic Gold Medalist (left) – and Scott Reardon – 100 metre Gold Medalist (right) … Robyn Lambird – wheelchair racer … Samantha Schmidt – Discuss … Ari Gesini – long jump … Chad Perris – 100 & 200 metres … Vanessa Low – long jump World record holder & Olympic Gold Medalist … Even O’Hanlon – 100 metres (front) – and Chad Perris – 100 & 200 metres (rear) … Sarah Edmiston – discuss … Robyn Lambird – wheelchair racer.
Wish all the team the greatest success … (as long as they don’t embarrass Great Britain 😉 )
Images © Brian Cassey, Athletics Australia