SPORTSMAIL’S RIATH SCOOPS A GOLDEN DOUBLE

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI swept up a magnificent double on a golden night for Sportsmail at the British Sports Journalism Awards — the industry’s Oscars. Our Chief Sports Feature Writer won prizes for Sportswriter of the Year and News Reporter of the Year. Al-Samarrai (above) broke the sensational story that Conor Benn had failed a drugs test before his fight with Chris Eubank Jnr. He also led the way on golf’s civil war with the LIV rebels and boxing’s links to suspected crime boss Daniel Kinahan, as well as producing a string of powerful interviews with stars including former goalkeeper Neville Southall, heptathlete Katarina JohnsonThompson and Rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson. Rob Draper was at the double, too, as he was named Football News Reporter of the Year and also won the Social Media Journalism award for his forensic, real-time reporting of the chaos around last year’s Champions League final in Paris. Isaan Khan collected the Ian Wooldridge Trophy — named after our late, great sportswriter — as he was named One to Watch in the writing category.