In photography, timing is everything. And so it proved with this image which won first prize in the Science and Technology Singles category of the World Press Photo 2000 contest.

The winner, US Navy Ensign John Gay, was announced on Friday. His picture was submitted by Sports Illustrated magazine.

It shows an F/A-18C Hornet breaking the sound barrier over the Pacific Ocean in July 1999.

The annual contest is sponsored by the non-profit World Press Photo Foundation, which is based in the Hague, Holland.

The jury is made up of professional photographers from newspapers, magazines and agencies from around the globe.

A black-and-white image of a wounded Kosovar Albanian refugee by Danish photographer Claus Bjorn Larsen took the competition's overall top prize.

AP Photo/US Navy, Ensign John Gay