BEIJING -- A total of 11 photos (photo series) received the awards of first prize or nomination in the World Media Summit (WMS) Global Awards for Excellence: Winter Sports Photo contest.

The results were announced at the fourth WMS, which was held on Monday.

The winners were selected from 2,740 entries submitted by 870 photographers from 65 countries and regions.

He Ping, executive president of the WMS and president of Xinhua News Agency, briefed a plenary meeting of the summit on the contest. He said the wonderful photos have fully shown the professionalism of the contest and its broad participation.

The work "Fourcade" by Sputnik's Alexey Filippov was awarded the Best Photo of the contest, as well as the First Prize of Actions Single Photo.

Al Bello with Getty Images was awarded the First Prize of Actions Photo Series for the work "The Greatest Show in the Snow."

The First Prize of Stories Single Photo and Photo Series were given to "Ski Climbing" by Jeff Pachoud with AFP and "Ice Rink Warrior" by He Yi with China's Bandao Metropolis Daily, respectively.

In addition, 10 photos were given the WMS Presidium Special Award. Fu Hua, Xinhua's editor-in-chief, announced the winners.

The WMS was jointly launched by a group of globally renowned media organizations in 2009 as a platform for media communication and coordination.

Organized by the WMS, the contest aims to encourage journalists to record memorable moments of winter sports so as to inspire more people to take part in winter sports.