Six British photographers were among this year's winners at the prestigious World Press Photo, with Laura Pannack taking first prize in the Portraits Singles and Gareth Copley receiving the top prize in Sports Action Singles.

Speaking to BJP, Copley says he never imagined he would win it. Copley's prize is for an image of England's Jonathan Trott who was run out at the Fifth Ashes Test in London on 20 August.

'I knew the results would be announced today, so I looked on the Internet, checked my emails and saw this,' he tells BJP. His reaction can be summarised in the one-word Tweet he sent at 10.30 on Friday morning: 'Shocked'.

Copley's winning picture came after he waited more than five hours by the pitch. 'During these five hours, there were six wickets at the other end. And then Jonathan came up. It was his first test match, and he got run out.'

Copley always enters World Press Photo, if not to win it at least to receive the annual book that is sent to all participants. Looking into them, he tells BJP, he cannot remember a cricket image winning a World Press Photo prize before.

Laura Pannack also won her first World Press Photo title this year, coming first in in the Portraits Singles category. The young photographer, featured in BJP and shortlisted in the magazine's Project Assistance Award last year, was awarded for her picture of an anorexic teenager.

'I'm completely shocked,' she tells BJP. 'I was on the underground for an hour (Friday) morning, and when I checked my phone I had 11 missed calls and five messages.'

She adds: 'It means so much. It feels a bit like a dream. I have huge respect for the photographers that win this competition. I really admire them and believe this is such an important competition.'

Her winning shot is part of a commission for The Guardian Weekend Magazine. 'Graham was an anorexic for many years. When I met him, we had very intense talks. I really connected with him. He is still fighting through it, and is deeply involved with charities.'

Another British photographer, Simon Roberts, won third prize in the Daily Life Stories category for his We English: England at Play book. 'I've entered year after year,' he tells BJP. 'I'm amazed it's won, the images aren't necessarily what you'd consider a press photo. But World Press is very important to me, because I went on one of the World Press Photo Masterclasses in 2003 and it changed the course of my career.'

He continues: 'All the other participants were talking about the importance of creating your own body of work and not just illustrating for someone else, so that's when I decided to stop working for the press and move to Russia to work on Motherland. I have a lot of respect for World Press. They do so much to try to open up photojournalism to people from other countries. So it's nice to be recognised.'

World Press Photo also recognised Nick Cobbing, second in the Nature Singles category, David Chancellor who won Third Prize in the People in the news category, and Zed Nelson, with third in the Contemporary Issues Singles category. His photo, for Panos Pictures, is titled Love Me: Christopher (22) gets his chest waxed in a New York salon.

But the photographer almost didn't make the cut, he tells BJP. 'I entered the body of work as a series, and the chair of the jury phoned to ask if all of the images had been shot in 2009. I said no - it was shot over four years - but it was completed this year,' he says. 'They must have decided they had to rule out the images shot in previous years - I guess it's the nature of the competition, it's the images of the year. But I could never have shot the project in a year, I worked all over the world.'

For more information, visit worldpressphoto.org.

Image (c) Gareth Copley.