Youth Baseball5 World Cup pic wins WBSC Photo of the Year 2025 contest
A stunning photo of Mexico's Axel Gonzalez at bat against the WBSC Refugee Team representing Syria during pool play at the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup 2025 in Tepic has won the WBSC Photo of the Year contest for 2025.
Mexican photographer Luis Favela took the winning photo (see above), which finished on top of a selection of the year's best photos made by WBSC photographers, which were presented to fans to vote on via the WBSC WhatsApp Channel.
With over 2,700 votes recorded in total across the selection of 10 photos, Favela's picture earned 44% of the vote with 1,231 while a fair-play photo from the WBSC Men's Softball World Cup Finals 2025 came second with 38% of the vote (1,044).
Favela started his collaboration with the WBSC during the U-23 Baseball World Cup 2021, hosted by Mexico in Ciudad Obregon and Hermosillo. Since then he has documented the U-15 Baseball World Cup, the U-18 Men’s Softball World Cup, the Men’s Softball World Cup and the Youth Baseball5 World Cup.
During WBSC events, official photographers document every single game with hundreds of photos made available for media and fans (for editorial purposes only) via the WBSC Flickr account.