Three Guardian writers have won British Sports Journalism Awards at Monday’s ceremony. Jonathan Liew was named sports columnist of the year, Sean Ingle won the specialist correspondent of the year award and Ali Martin was named cricket journalist of the year.
Andy Bull received the silver award and Donald McRae the bronze award in the sports feature writer category, with Jonathan Liew also shortlisted. Donald McRae also took home a shared silver medal in the specialist correspondent category. Sean Ingle was also on the shortlist for the live reporting award, while David Hytner was shortlisted for football journalist and Michael Aylwin for rugby journalist.
Awarding Liew’s prize, the SJA’s citation read: “Great columnists can make you laugh, cry and get angry – sometimes all in the same article. They’re also intelligent, well-written and knowledgeable. The winner of this award is all those things.”
Steve Cram presented Ingle with his award, stating the judges’ view that “the winner stood out amongst the fierce competition because of the quality of his writing but also his versatility as a journalist and a wonderful blend of emotion, facts and descriptive framing”.
Martin was unable to collect his award in person due to being in the Caribbean to cover England’s tour of West Indies. “According to the judges, the winner’s submission demonstrated the breadth of his abilities and the key skills of journalistic excellence – news breaking, rigorous interviewing and subject analysis,” read his citation. “There was an excellent exclusive about ECB bonuses and a lovely interview with Jimmy Anderson.”
The Guardian was shortlisted for sports newspaper of the year, and theguardian.com for digital sports publisher at the 2021 awards, organised by the Sports Journalists’ Association. Monday’s ceremony also honoured the Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling, who won the Doug Gardner award for his “outstanding contribution to journalism”.
Elsewhere, TalkSport and Sky Sports host Laura Woods won sports presenter of the year, and Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes took the punditry award for her coverage of Euro 2020 with ITV Sport.
At the Football Supporters Association awards in November, the Guardian was named newspaper of the year for the eighth time. Football Weekly was named podcast of the year and Jonathan Wilson picked up the writer of the year prize for the third time.
