A retrospective of my sporting images and memories of 2008 can be summed up in one word: quick.

Was it as long ago as early February, shivering nervously, that I stood 5,600 feet above sea level for the White Turf horse racing on the frozen lake in St Moritz, Switzerland, with its magnificent Alpine background as the runners and riders in the final race of the year thundered around the last corner? The resulting pictures from an event that I had longed to cover for The Times were as dramatic as the scenery.

The same could be said for the Isle of Man TT Races that I attended in June, cowering behind an advertising hoarding on Bray Hill to capture John McGuinness, taking the airborne route to a fourteenth TT victory around the Mountain Course that enabled him to emulate Mike Hailwood with the second highest number of race wins behind Joey Dunlop's 26.

In the previous month, the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow witnessed the all-English Champions League final. The moment when Frank Lampard wheels away in celebration of Chelsea's equaliser after Cristiano Ronaldo had put Manchester United ahead was captured on a remote-controlled camera behind the United goal.

As the heavens opened and the game advanced to the penalty shoot-out it was almost impossible to keep my equipment dry. The defining image, though, was not the decisive penalty save by Edwin Van der Sar from Nicolas Anelka but the moment when John Terry sat stricken on the Moscow turf after slipping crucially and missing the penalty kick that would have given Chelsea the trophy.

For sheer tit-for-tat brilliance the Wimbledon men's singles final on that breathless night in July will take some beating. After four hours and 48 minutes, Rafael Nadal secured the title with victory over Roger Federer and at 9.26pm in near darkness. I turned off my Canon flash, slowed my shutter speed to allow the capture of other flashlights and suddenly took at one-thirtieth of a second an almost ethereal image of Nadal, bathed in light, holding aloft the Wimbledon trophy.

The Olympics in August raised the bar for British athletes while in the Bird's Nest, Yelena Isinbayeva applied the term in a literal sense as she claimed a pole vault world record, soaring beyond 5.05 metres.

Recording the feats of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps on track and in the pool respectively, the velodrome was the exclusive domain of British athletes, especially Chris Hoy. But the most endearing image of the three-times gold medal-winner presented itself at the Dorchester Hotel in London, where the Scotsman posed with his feet up for a Times feature.

On the subject of athletes that were a pleasure to meet, Dwain Chambers welcomed me into his home on a freezing night in November and once I had noticed the tattoo on his arm which proclaimed 'Chambers, Sprinter' I knew the picture that I wanted, asking Chambers to carefully balance his two-week old baby, Rocco Star, on one of his huge arms. I am as pleased with the portrait as Chambers is and I for one hope that he finds success during the remainder of his career.

And finally in a fleeting 1250th of a second using a 45mm Canon tilt-and-shift lens that alters the focal plane I captured from high up on a gantry at Wembley Stadium a free kick taken by Steven Gerrard and contested by Emile Heskey to give England's World Cup qualifying match against Kazakhstan an almost Subbuteo look. And so another year passes in a blur of speed, excitement ... plus a few memorable pictures.