The World Athletics Championships 2025 brought together the world's finest athletes as well as some of the world's top sports photographers for a week in Tokyo, Japan which coincided with a change of seasons as Japan sees a fading of summer into winter. The week began with long hot and humid days but by the end of the week the temperatures had cooled and we had some soothing rain. I was one of 300 photographers granted accreditation to cover the event which falls under the governing body World Athletics.

Athletes at the start of the Mens Marathon during the Athletics World Championsh...Read More

Athletes at the start of the Mens Marathon during the Athletics World Championships in Tokyo, Japan on September 15, 2025. Matrix Images / Nic Bothma

Sony partnered with World Athletics to host a photography workshop at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 as part of the World Athletics Media Academy. The workshop provided 11 emerging photographers with expert guidance from renowned photographers like Bob Martin along with hands-on experience on the competition track. This gave young photographers the opportunity to shoot in an arena previously reserved for experienced top photographers. A great introduction to sports photography and a mechanism ensuring the distribution of institutional knowledge being passed down the generations.

For me I had a particular free assignment in that I was shooting for my agency Matrix Images as well as creating some content for Sony MEA and Sony South Africa and covering the Athletics South Africa team. This meant unlike previous World Championships where I was working for one particular agency part of a large team and assigned one position for the week I was now free to roam and choose any position I felt I could create good images. My aim was to shoot a diverse set of images highlighting the amazing quality and capability of the Sony cameras whilst capturing the emotion and intensity of this Olympic sport.

Sony Japan assisted with the gear I used and I chose 4 main lenses to work with for the duration :

• Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens
• Sony FE 50-150mm f/2 GM Lens
• Sony FE 28-70mm f/2 GM Lens
• Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM Lens

These were paired with the following bodies:

• Sony A1
• Sony A1 II
• Sony A9 III

Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS Lens

Gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of USA competes in the Women's 400m Fina...Read More

Gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of USA competes in the Women's 400m Final during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan on September 18, 2025. Matrix Images / Nic Bothma

This is the workhorse and staple lens of any sports photographer. One of the strongest in the Sony line up. This powerful fixed telephoto lens allows the photographer to capture really tight action from a distance. Outstanding lens quality coupled with ultra fast auto focus paired with the new bodies makes for precise and accurate shooting. One of the amazing advantages of these lenses is their weight. The lightest in their class which makes a huge difference when carrying this lens each day around the stadium, up and down stairs for 8 days straight.

Sony FE 50-150mm f/2 GM Lens.

Bronze medalist Abderrahman Samba of Qatar crosses the line with Ezekiel Nathani...Read More

Bronze medalist Abderrahman Samba of Qatar crosses the line with Ezekiel Nathaniel of Nigeria in the 400 Metres Hurdles Men Final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan on September 19, 2025. Matrix Images / Nic Bothma

Next up the revolutionary new lens which is almost like having 3 lenses in one. It also is a better option for me than the 70-200mm lens. As a friend put it: " The lens you never knew you needed:) "

There are multiple strong points around this lens. Firstly is the amount of glass involved giving it a fixed aperture of f/2 through the zoom range. This glass captures beautiful bokeh and also allows for further blurring of backgrounds beyond what the f/2.8 70-200mm can do. The wider aperture also means greater low light capability. Paired with the A1 or A1 II the file sizes are really big so if needed one can crop to get the effect of a 200mm lens without any quality deterioration. Another plus to this lens is all the zooming is done within the casing so no external moving parts.

Overall an absolutely mind blowing lens that is a lot of fun to use and produced outstanding results.

Sony FE 28-70mm f/2 GM Lens

The USA team receive massages inside the Japan National Stadium a day before the...Read More

The USA team receive massages inside the Japan National Stadium a day before the start of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan on September 12, 2025. Matrix Images / Nic Bothma

Continuing with the f/2 capability is the new 28-70mm f/2 which has replaced my old 24-70mm f/2.8. More glass, greater quality. Being able to shoot at f/2 is well worth the small sacrifice of the wider end of this lens being 28mm not 24mm. An all round great portrait and general purpose lens.

Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 GM Lens

Jo-Ane Du Plessis of South Africa talks to her coach in the stands during the Wo...Read More

Jo-Ane Du Plessis of South Africa talks to her coach in the stands during the Women's Javelin Throw at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan on September 20, 2025. Matrix Images / Nic Bothma

This outstanding wide angle zoom was my go to for tight situations like when an athlete comes to the side of the track where you are and reacts right in front of you. Super for in the stands and between crowds. Very light and easy to use with a wide aperture of f/2.8 allowing for some low light photography in the spectator sections around the stadium capturing the behind the scenes and spectator areas.

Talking about the bodies the A1 II has significant upgrades over the legendary A1 such as the Al auto focus, improved sensor and enhanced AF capabilities as well as a better low light capacity. Both have a 50 MP file size and allow for cropping due to the large files created with these exceptional cameras.

The A9 III boasts 120 frames per second which was used in some ultra high speed moments to maximize the options available for split second timing in a photograph.

Athletics is largely about movement and speed. I played in the first few days especially with a lot of slow shutter speed techniques to illustrate this movement in different ways. The side of the track slow pan with athletes running is a well used technique and I pushed the limits of this using even slower speeds than usual at 1/10 of a second and slower. What I did to assist with the parallel stability is to use a monopod even on the wider lenses like 28-70mm and 12-24mm to make sure the only movement was lateral and not vertical. This assisted a lot in keeping panning smooth and thus allowing for one part of the subject to remain sharp once pairing the lens speed and athlete speed.

One technique less used is the panning with the long lens in different directions. I used the 400mm to good effect with a slow shutter during the Pole Vault capturing the flight and fall of the athletes with this slow speed, again around 1/10 to capture the "flying" and creating stunning dynamic images.