N-ice chance for snap-happy Tom

Second year photography student Tom Rowland in action on his dream placement at the World Junior Curling Championships in South Korea. Photo : WCF/Richard Gray

Although he was only in Korea for a couple of weeks, Tom Rowland loved every minute of his unusual work placement as an international sports photographer.

The University of Central Lancashire student was hand picked to travel to Gangneung, in South Korea, to cover the VoIP Defender World Junior Curling Championships.

This saw him spending two weeks covering the 10 teams in all rounds of the competition.

The second year student beat off stiff competition from photography students from across the globe to land the prestigious role.

He said: “I heard about the placement through my course at UCLan so I applied by sending off 10 of my sport images.

“I was over the moon when I found out I had been picked, it really was unbelievable.”

The 19- year-old had no experience of curling before he got out there.

Tom said: “This is giving me the experience of what is expected of being a media photographer, when images need to be turned over quickly and handed to the rest of the team so they can be  published.

“I’ve met some incredible people and I’m working with an amazing experienced team who are helping me along the journey.”