[ RECREATIONAL & TRADITIONAL SPORTS ] A single photograph that celebrates the role sports play in the community. Images may show the emotional highlights of players on the field or the reactions of fans. Local, traditional, and obscure games which are often neglected in mainstream media are welcome in this category. The pictures must be from non-professional settings. Each participant is allowed to enter up to 10 images. The images must be taken in 2021.

Judges for Recreational & Traditional Sports
Ikuru Kuwajima
Tanvi Mishra
Sanjit Das
Maika Elan
Oded Wagenstein

First Place

Ata Ranjbar Zeydanloo

Independent
Iran
A Turkmen man trains and trains his horse to participate in equestrian competitions. Turkmen horse is one of the most beautiful and strong breeds in the world.

Finalist

Qiang Li

Yihe Images
China
Ben is surrounded by Qiqihar female ice hockey team in the locker room.In the summer of 2021, to escape from the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing kid Ben spent his summer vacation in his grandparents’ home in a small city in northeast China, where there is less population and purer air, he could be closer to nature.

Finalist

Ebrahim Alipoor

Independent
Iran
Kabul, Afghanistan, December 03, 2021. A cricket player is playing cricket at dusk in the dust surrounding him in Chaman-e-Huzoori park in downtown Kabul. Cricket, the most popular sport in Afghanistan, is still alive among the people despite the recent miseries war has imposed on them. Many chase their dreams to be a professional cricket player and for others, it is a means to bring temporary oblivion.

Award of Excellence

Nikolay Losev

Independent
Russia
Russia, St.Peterburg, 49 years old. A livestock specialist by education. 14 years of experience in knife fighting. 12 years knife fighting instructor. Instructor on traditional knife fighting at the 'Danza Macabra' club. Now for Dmitry this is the main work. “Knife fighting gave me a team of like-minded people,” Dmitry says. Knife Fighting is a safe combat sport. This sport helps to raise concentration, quick decision-making, strategic thinking, and athleticism to best your opponent in a highly dynamic environment. Knife Fighting is safe. The knives are made of pliable rubber, and all participants wear protective gear on their head and body. Different people come to engage in knife fighting. There are designers, lawyers, builders, programmers. Since the Russian Federation has a rather serious crime situation, especially in remote regions, many young people carry a knife as a self-defense weapon.

Award of Excellence

Ebrahim Alipoor

Independent
Iran
Kabul, Afghanistan, December 03, 2021. Weekly after Friday prayers, the Chaman-e-Huzoori park in downtown Kabul witnesses such scenes played out by men, mostly from Northern Afghanistan, who convene to compete and watch Pahlawani. Pahlawani is a traditional form of wrestling. Wrestling, as one of the sports that still has the potential to excite war-torn people, continues in every corner that is a little bit away from the main Taliban war, where people can focus on something else than the war and those they have lost due to it for a while.

Award of Excellence

Yam G Jun

Independent
Malaysia/ Kyrgyzstan
A rider reaches the first checkpoint at 530km into the Silkroad Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The Silkroad Mountain Race is a self-supported 1,860km challenge that stretches across the Kyrgyz mountain ranges, from the freezing alpine tundra to the lush and at times boiling mountain valley, and everything in between. Riders must endure it all to succeed. Crucially, they are not allowed to receive any assistance; no friends or family to cheer them on; no provided food but that which they bring, buy, or are given by the locals; no hospital or mechanic nearby to mend them or their bikes.