Olympics photographer Karli Saul's stand-out Paris moments
If you have been paying attention to Estonian coverage of the recently concluded Paris Olympics, chances are you will have seen some of photographer Karli Saul's work, capturing the highs and the lows of competitors from Estonia and beyond.
Back from Paris, Saul dropped in by the "Ringvaade" studio and discussed those photos which had stood out to him the most.
Rasmus Mägi's painful fall in the men's 400-meter hurdles final was the first to spring to mind.
He said: "I planned to capture the finish at the exact moment, and then you see that there's still one to go, so I started shooting."
"I pressed the shutter button, and in that one instant between when I started and finished shooting, I took 143 snaps," he added.
This resulted in an almost animated flick-book of the incident.
"I captured everything perfectly, from the moment his heel struck the hurdle and pushed it over to the very last second. You can see exactly what went wrong," Saul added.
Unlike another racer who dropped out after coming to grief in the same way, Mägi pressed home to the finish line to finish seventh.
Other highlights for Saul were the quad sculls team won the B final and finishing in seventh place overall, fencer Nelli Differt's agonizingly near miss on getting into the medals in the women's individual epee , and most of all, the trio of Estonian athletes who finished in the top 12 in the decathlon.
Janek Õiglane finished fifth, Johannes Erm sixth, and Karel Tilga 11th – no other country managed to get three finishers placing that high – and it was Saul who got to hand Õiglane the Estonian flag after his spectacular effort.
Saul got to capture a less pleasant side to the games when French mountain biker Loana Lecomte had to be stretchered away unconscious and in a neck brace after a nasty fall in front of a home crowd.
"As a press photographer, I have to keep shooting. That moment doesn't go uncaptured," he added.
Fortunately Lecomte's injuries were not as severe as feared and she is on the way to a full recovery.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Andrew Whyte