Two unique contenders lead the voting early on this week. Hamburg’s distinct podium celebrations captured viewers attention. One saw Spain’s Javier Gomez drenched by Olympic champion and hometown favourite Jan Frodeno, while the latter showed a startled Emma Moffatt after an errant dousing broke her celebratory beer stein.

As the last day of votes wound down, the image of Australia’s reigning world champion took the week’s Best Photo title, placing it in contention for photo of the year.

The images from Hamburg were shot by Janos Schmidt, one of our resident photographers on the ITU circuit.  Schmidt has been working in sports photography for nearly a decade, and his images have been seen in ITU’s galleries for the past 3 seasons.  Hailing from Hungary, Schmidt has an affinity for capturing pure elegance and the essence of sport in his images.  He offered up his favourite image of the lot and his thoughts on why this image stood out for him.

Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure:1/25 sec, F14
ASA: 100
Lens: 12-24mm
Flash: yes

See all this week’s nominees here.