The Guardian's Jonathan Liew named sports writer of the year at SJA Awards
The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew, Andy Bull and Tom Jenkins have been honoured with top prizes at the British Sports Journalism Awards, with Liew being named sports writer of the year.
Announcing Liew’s award, Patrick Collins, the president of the Sports Journalists Association, said: “It has always been a measure of the great British sports writers to be able to deflate the egos of the most pompous players, managers and officials. Our winner does that with abundant style. And our winner also writes with genuine insight and emotion about issues that link sport to the hardest of international news stories like the killing of George Floyd.”
Liew’s success comes a year after the Guardian’s Marina Hyde received the 2019 award.
Bull was awarded sports feature writer of the year after a year of dazzling writing and reporting, especially on rugby and cricket. The judges praised his “high standard of writing, strength of thought and a freshness of ideas” and said he “ticked every box and more”.
Jenkins won the “away from the action” award for sports photography for a picture of Canvey Island fans watching their side play Boreham Wood in the second round of the FA Cup. The judges said: “In a year when so many photographers found their weekly evenings and weekend afternoons devoid of match access, the winning photographer proved that the tenacious can shoot an award-winning picture from outside a ground. Experience surely played a part too.”
Bull and Michael Aylwin received the silver award in the scoop of the year category for their reports on rugby’s dementia crisis. David Conn received the silver award for sports news reporter of the year. Ali Martin received the bronze award in the cricket journalist of the year category.