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The Newport Half Marathon is the second biggest marathon in Wales with an average of 3000 participants each year, with this year having a large turn out due to the pandemic cancelling the past two events. My role on the day was to be a photographer as I thought this would work best within our group as Gerren and Matt were focusing more on social media posts, I kept my Twitter in mind throughout the day although this was not my priority within the group. Furthermore, prior to the event I created graphics to help support the runners and the charities they were raising money for.

I made sure I had my equipment ready using the media stores at the University to rent out the camera, I choose the Canon Mk5 as this lens is capable of longer shots to allowed me to get the most out of my positioning for situations like the starting line and finishing line pictures. With just minutes before the klaxon, I got some establishing shots to show the atmosphere which had formed from the build-up of the event. Although these shots are not personal to any of these runners, they were great to help introduce my piece. 

Below is a selection of the best shots at the starting line to the event.

After posting graphics to my Twitter, we made our way to the halfway mark in which the contestants had to run around a pinned style location, running towards the camera allowed me to get the best pictures of the day with people expressing their emotions, especially people who were among big groups who shared a smile and a wave. 

The finishing line was a difficult position to capture the participants with a few other photographers in place before me, however I tried to get pictures of their faces crossing the line capturing the event banner on top. 

After the race had finished, I relocated to where they were given their medals. These pictures helped create the story of these participants who had just achieved greatness, this can be seen by the smiles on their faces with a few of the best shown below.

The celebrations continued outside the university campus, I also continued to capture these celebrations with friends and families. The images didn’t work as well as their medals hard to see, to change this I introduced myself to two USW students who were encouraging people to take pictures with their USW frames. This made a great photo opportunity with more people more willing to take photos with these frames. Below shows examples of the best of these photos. 

The experience of the day was brilliant, to get a better understanding of the work that is put in place during these events is sometimes underappreciated. Having the chance to try different elements throughout the day allowed me to improve on my photography, confidence, and communication skills.

The Newport Half Marathon takes place today with over 3000 people participating and we are looking forward to seeing everyone taking part for such a great cause. The money raised will go to many charities such as the St Hospice Care. Earlier this week we spoke to John Griffiths, a known figure in the local community, who is a representative for Newport in the Welsh Sennedd. 

Griffiths has taken part in every Newport half marathon which has taken place, this will be his 9^th this year. He is a very keen on health fitness having completed six London marathons with a handful of other half marathons and 10ks. John takes part in the park runs in the local area when he has availability to attend. In preparation to the marathon this time around, John’s preparation has included a lot of ascending and descending styled runs. 

“I live in a very hilly part of Newport, so I’ve been incorporating hilly runs in my training program with also the park runs on Saturday mornings, however I’ve also been building up my distance so just last week I did a fair chunk of the half marathon, probably about 10 miles. So, I’ve tried to vary as much as I can, short runs, medium distance runs and the occasional longer run with plenty of hills.”

The Newport half marathon has improved each year and continues to do so; with this happening it is inviting more and more people to get involved, creating a closer community in the local area. John expressed his thoughts on how important it is for people to take part after the tail end of the pandemic. 

“I think its about being part of something bigger than yourself, a collective effort that involves a lot of people for a very good cause, alongside that it also helps you to become fitter and healthier mentally and physically. I feel these two aspects helps yourself to get personally fitter and healthier and then there is the benefit of putting something back into the community at the same time, what’s not to like about the event really.”

Have a listen to John’s video on his social media ahead of the marathon earlier this week!

I am delighted to be taking part in the Admiral City of Newport Half Marathon for the 9th time this year, I am so pleased that it will take place as normal with participants running together, feeling a sense of togetherness as we support @StDavidsHospice. pic.twitter.com/Wrx2jlWLjK

— John Griffiths MS (@JGriffithsLab) February 28, 2022

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On the 9th of February with my trip to The Met Coaches Stadium for training, James mentioned within our weekly meeting that he wants to implement more video content on match days. With many of the players not interested in taking media duties after being defeated, I decided to create a match day package for spectators to watch in their spare time. James was happy for me to continue with the idea allowing me to experiment with these techniques.

In today’s fixture against Cascade I decided to create the different piece of content for the club’s socials by creating match highlights for the players to use for analysis and to be posted for viewers to watch after the final whistle. This was first brought to mind when James mentioned to try and bring something new to the social media to engage more people for next season for players and people to get behind the team. I used the Canon Mk5 to capture the action in which I had a tripod with me but felt it was easier to handhold the camera. Before kick-off I made sure to capture the build-up of the players warm ups, with the weather not being the best this made it difficult, however this was combated by switching to a longer lens to capture what I could of the players warming up under shelter, which worked well.

After the fixture it was onto the editing side of the video. Having not created a match package like this before it was something which excited me to experiment with. Although I could be creative, with a lack of understanding of what should be created made, some elements were more difficult such as the way the clips connected together. Although in most sports media outlets this is normal, I felt the clips came across choppy in some cases but after putting them all together, the footage flowed a lot smoother. I used examples like the BBC and Match of the Day as inspirations behind the editing style.

The recording was successful and the final outcome was what I was expecting. Following sending the video to James, he mentioned the highlights were great but lacked different angles, which I would aim to improve on next time by repositioning myself at half time. The chairman, Lesley, also expressed his thoughts on the video, by advising me to try this with the mens to see what reaction can come from it. This is something I hope to go ahead with in the future to get more experience in match recording.

The Commonwealth games are set to be hosted in Birmingham this year between the dates of July 28 and August 8th. with over 200 sports to place at this competition forming over 5,000 athletes of all ages to compete.

With COVID 19 still be a topic which could effect this event, Cathy Williams head of engagement and coms at TeamWales mentions the problems it has caused.

“A multi sports event like the commonwealth games has its own challenges from working across 18 to 19 different sports with different age groups involved in that, especially that is a challenge when working with a team designing the kit, do you cater for someone who is 15/16 years old or 70 years old. Obviously there is challenges in every department”.

“In this time around for Birmingham Covid has had a massive impact, normally we love going round meeting sports and the athletes face to face but that has had a massive impact as a lot of it as been done via zoom or teams, all being online”.

“It’s all about being adaptable and willing to change and to be flexible with our work when we approach things, it’s hard but we are looking at it as a positive slant that we will be able to create different elements with more exciting opportunities”.

A crisis plan has been made by Williams and her take incase of sudden effect made by covid. “We have always got an action plan in place from ABC, obviously covid has proven things can change over night but that is something we will keep an eye on over the coming months as things can change rapidly”.

Despite the fact that the pandemic has caused more challenges for Williams and her team they still have many future plans for this Birmingham and future commonwealth games to come.

“To make sure we have a huge support in Birmingham and building on the legacy of the next games and the future. The bigger we can build our TeamWales brand that will have a positive impact on all the sports and the athletes as well”.

The importance of athletes during a commonwealth games is the pinnacle of successful without the athletes to take part and getting them known to the public it makes it a lot harder for a event this large to take off especially in a place like Wales.

“It is really important for us to get the faces out there to get more engagement with our supports across social media of course but if people know the names and faces of the athletes the more likely they are to get involved. so it is important we make sure we keep that level through to this commonwealth games even with implications of covid”.

Referees are the most important person on the pitch during a football match, without them the game doesn’t play. Mark Roberts Gwent Referee began his career due to the lack of referees there were for his children when they were playing football at a younger age.

“I’ve always played football all my life but when my children played sport rugby and football, I went to the local football club at my grassroots as a parent, picked up the whistle and was at the Sunday games”.

Roberts has been a referee for over 12 years but always wished he had done it sooner due to how much he enjoys it, “I always wish I did it years ago to help out”.

After beginning his referee journey, he began to understand the lack of referees there are in Wales. Although he did not mention any reasons why, there can be speculation surrounding how much pay is earned per month and scheduling conflicts with full-time workers.

Due to the more games being played in different leagues around the country the need for referees have been at an all time high.

“The biggest problem right now is the shortage of referees, being over 400 referees short in the whole of Wales with almost 50 of those coming from the Gwent leagues. The need for referees have come from the higher leagues which only causes grassroots clubs to not have grassroots officials for games. The biggest concern is at the grassroots because that’s where the future is”.

Without the grassroots clubs, especially at a younger level, we might not be able to see such promising youth players build their way through the ranking as efficiently to places in England, leaving Wales with a huge disadvantage.

The need for more money to be put into grassroots clubs to allow them to set up a better scheme for referees at this level is extremely crucial, “Players who might not be fortunate to play in higher leagues should be able to have opportunities else where and the infrastructure within grassroots to promote refereeing in Wales”.

In a recent interview, Jonathan Jones- head coach for Pontypridd mens football team and USW 1sts football team- talks about how he had “the best maternity leave” due to the COVID lockdown last year.

Jones, who has recently become a new father, began taking turns looking after his 6 month old baby Teddy with his wife Sophie. In an attempt to create an efficient morning routine, they started creating their very own PE with Joe Wick to be able to exercise with his 6-month-old child.

“We took inspiration from Joe Wick with his PE videos for kids in the morning, although not a 6-month-old would be able to do the PE class so we thought we do something of the like”.

“I would wake up with him and having a sporty football background we did our own version of PE with Joe Wick. The best of that was at 6 months he would crawl and we would do stuff to work towards it, by the age of 10/11 months he stood and walked, so that was definitely something great”.

Hearing Jonathan was a part of the families that were getting involved with exercising in the house during the pinnacle of the lockdown, this helps spread the importance of exercise raised by Joe Wicks.

“There are parents getting up for the first time ever getting up and exercising and it’s so amazing seeing them having fun and giggling. This is my mission and my goal at the end of this is to change the culture of exercise in the household”.

“We do exercise in front of each other, it’s something we do to enjoy and not a separate thing mum and dad do going to the gym, this is going to have long lasting effects on people.” -Joe Wick

After hearing the news of the appointment of Kathryn Morgan becoming a part of the women’s club, I knew this would be a great way to make some content for the club.

After speaking with the chairman Lesley, he insisted on a large content push on this event to attract more of the women’s side of the club, with no exact direction from him he gave me ideas of what he would like to see. This mainly consisted of posters and a interview to the social media platforms.

I first got in contact with the Kathryn to organise a Zoom interview within 48 hours to ensure the story is ready for the announcement. The Zoom interview consisted of a variety of interview questions ranging from her impressive Welsh career to her relationship with the Merthyr town club. The full Interview can be found below. 

Once the interview was complete the editing process could begin, creating the interview graphics using apps such as photoshop and Canva to create this. The design allowed a different element to the screen to take away from the talking heads concept. The video was posted to the three main social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to tease more information on the appointment of Kathryn, the full video was then posted to the YouTube channel a few hours later. 

The feedback I acquired from the coach James Payne and the Chairman (Lesley) was to use more images of Kathryn throughout. Although I agree with this feedback with the short time scale given, I felt it was more important to create the full interview on time then waiting for images to be sourced by Kathryn herself. Also, images online is very limited and didn’t quite match up with the topics spoken about by Kathryn. 

Following this feedback, it is evident that an in-person interview could have been more efficient to acquire footage of Kathryn myself, this would have also made the video more interesting to spectators.

The resident of Butetown, Cardiff was, like many throughout the city, appalled to see the ‘My City My Shirt’ mural on James Street, painted by artists Yusuf Ismail and Shawqi Hasson and unveiled in April this year, spoiled with white paint across it.

The image of mother-of-two Maimuna Yoncana, originally from Guinea-Bissau, wearing a Cardiff City shirt and cradling her baby bump, was intended to be a celebration of diversity.

Sarah Bowen a big part of the Butetown community being a worker at TigerAFC boxing saw it had been defaced, she then created a GoFundMe to raise money for the hate crime which took place to help restore the mural, with the page being up for less than a week it has already raised over £2,000 the initial target was £750

Sarah mentioned her first sighting of the mural being defaced. 

“I was walking to the coffee shop the day after I noticed it once more and took a photo and thought to myself ‘why is that still there and why isn’t nobody doing anything about it.”

“The mural is about 200m from the police station, with police cars would have driven past there since it has been there. There is a real issue with hate crime of people being attacked in this community especially younger people as I get a lot of feedback from the people who attend our boxing club” (tigers)

“This isn’t being treated as hate crime, so seeing that, it is a hate crime and its visual but sadly people care more about art than they do about our actual children in this community, I knew something needed to be done.” 

When asked does this vandalism make young people in the community or anybody feel more unsafe in their neighbourhood? “I don’t think it makes people feel unsafe because they are used to it, it has become normalised”

“I think there is so much of a positive response from what has happened within the community for each other that we will just raise the funds ad get it re painted”

“We will  show who ever done this that, if anything is reinforcing the opposite that they are hoping to achieve”

Tiger Bay is one of the fastest growing boxing clubs in Wales and is helping get a lot of young people into the sport and off the streets.

“This is a visible display of racism and there’s a lot of invisible barriers that people are fighting everyday”

“That’s one reason I wanted to do this fundraiser – just to show people you don’t have to wait for anyone to come in and solve your problems. If you’ve got the right story and right message you can reach the right people.”

The response from the community of Butetown has been heart warming 

with schools such as St Mary the Virgin School, who raised £150 for the GoFundMe by all staff and pupils wore sports kits whilst taking part in sporting activities last week. Other schools such as Ysgol Gynradd Dolau Primary School Llanharan and Mount Stuart Primary School. Have been getting involved raising money alongside others.

Please help donate to raise money against hate crime –  https://gofund.me/f23a4cee  

UPDATE: The final goal raised was 2,105 but the mural still hasn’t been covered 2 months from the incident.

Food at stadiums can be equally as important as the fixture itself, ranging from a burnt panini at Manchester united to a Wigan kebab at Rochdale AFC if you have an interest in some half time grub at your local match then this Twitter account may be a concern of interest for you.

Tom Silbey is the Founder of Footy Scran, Wolves supporter and air conditioning engineer.

This social media account finds the best and worst food at grassroot stadiums from football fans in the past year. 

FootyScran is a Twitter and Instagram account made up of the best foods around with fans sending in pictures to impress or humiliate other clubs. Tom Silbey spoke about his reasoning for creating this account back in October 2020, 

“We all know a lot of people love football and we all know a lot of people love food so putting them together seemed the right thing to do.”

“So, in lockdown I started footy scran posting old photos of food and drinks at the football but with it being in prime lockdown I was getting sent no new content at all. I built the account to a couple thousands of followers but stopped with it after I was getting no messages.”

However, the account had a turnaround for the better.

Tom counting “I was reading some tweets not long ago talking about burgers at football stadiums and that instantly sprung footy scran back into my mind. After I started it back up and within 10 days, I reached 50,000 followers.”

The Twitter page is now seen with over 64k followers, the recent growth from the account saw FootyScran make an appearance on the TalkSport breakfast giving them even more attraction. 

“The main gain has been from TalkSport for sure, Laura woods and ally McCoist did about a 5-minute segment on their breakfast show where they went through my tweets and reviewed them.”

“Ally McCoist was loving the Chinese at Reading, but they all agreed that the pea dog at Burscough was meant for the bin!”

A lot of welsh clubs have been seen on the page with tweets about Undy AFC’s welsh cakes “people go crazy for them It seems, but we haven’t been sent a photo only many tweets talking about them”

One of the biggest of the selection of welsh clubs is the famous Merthyr Town cob 

“The Merthyr Town cob is one of the best in football food,” Tom stated

“It’s been one of our most favoured posts and gained us a lot of attraction, it’s the good of a creation other clubs in the non-league set up are copying it for themselves.”

Will you be checking some of their scran from the football stadiums of the UK?

https://twitter.com/footyscran?s=21

Today I was invited along to a club meeting, I was there in place for the media team to find out what content they wanted for the remainder of the season. After speaking to the chairman of the club, Lesley, and coach James, it was clear what content they wanted to push for me during my placement this season.

Firstly, they wanted to encourage more younger players to help build the brand new Under 19s team, in which we came to the conclusion that posters would be a great element to help spread the message. James wanted me to interact more with what the players would be coming into as it can be nerve-wracking not knowing what to expect joining a new team.

This could include training videos of drills and small clips of football being played to show the environment they would be walking into. I will now be attending training sessions from this point to make sure this goal is reached.