Samuel and Lennon land SJA’s major honours on big night for the Daily Mail and Jeff Powell
Martin Samuel was named the Sports Journalists’ Association Sports Writer of the Year for the fifth time at the SJA’s annual gala dinner in London on March 24, 2014, sponsored for the first time by BT Sport. The sponsorship was announced on the night as the start of a three-year agreement between the broadcaster and the world’s largest national sports media members’ organisation.
Samuel received his trophy from the SJA chairman, David Walker, in the the night’s penultimate announcement.
It capped off an outstanding evening for his employers, the Daily Mail, who also took the Sports Newspaper of the Year title, had Mail Online’s sports site named the Sports Website of the Year, and whose veteran reporter Jeff Powell received a standing ovation at the end of the evening when he was honoured with a special presentation for the SJA’s Doug Gardner Award for services to sports journalism.
Nearly 350 guests attended the gala awards dinner, staged at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London’s Covent Garden, where the work of Getty Images’ lensman Bryn Lennon was acclaimed as he took the Ed Lacey Trophy as the 2013 Sports Photographer of the Year.
BBC Radio’s cricket commentator Alison Mitchell was named Sports Broadcaster of the Year, as voted for by the SJA’s near-800-strong membership.
The other big winners of the night were the Telegraph’s football correspondent, Henry Winter and Jon Colman from Cumbrian Newspapers, who won their categories – Specialist Correspondent and Regional Sports Writer of the Year respectively – for a fourth time, and Matthew Syed, of The Times, who was named both Sports Feature Writer and Columnist of the Year.
Lennon took the Sports Photographer title for the first time for his winning work in the Specialist Sports Portfolio, which the judges said showed “that the photographer had a total view of the sport, with strong images, presenting a great set of 10 with a surprise on every shot”.
Two former Sports Photographers of the Year, Laurence Griffiths and Toby Melville, took the top sports pictures of the year, Melville, of Reuters, being awarded the Sports News Picture of the Year for his image of what was probably the moment of British sport in 2013, when Andy Murray ended the long, long wait for a British men’s winner at Wimbledon. Murray won the SJA’s Sportsman of the Year for 2013 in December.
Jeff Powell’s career as one of the country’s leading sports writers for almost 50 years was recognised with the SJA’s highest honour, the Doug Gardner Award, presented to him by two former England coaches, football’s Terry Venables and rugby’s Sir Clive Woodward, together with Arsenal Double-winning captain Frank McLintock.
In announcing the award, David Walker, the SJA chairman, said that Powell had “displayed the ability to reinvent himself by dealing with the challenges of modern, multi-platform journalism.
“He has not stood still … He’s embraced different sports plus website journalism and gone for it,” Walker said.
Walker highlighted how Powell had gone from being a leading football writer to taking on responsibility for covering boxing, working his contacts effectively to such an extent that the Mail writer was the only journalist invited to the 70th birthday party of Muhammad Ali.
Other high points of the night, which was presented by John Inverdale and Sybil Ruscoe, included ITV winning the Television Sports Programme of the Year prize for the first time for their moving series of documentaries, Sports Life Stories, while TalkSport made a breakthrough in the Radio Sports Programme category with their My Sporting Life.
- A gallery of some leading pictures in our competitions can be found here
- Brutal choices and lucky moments – 2013 Sports Photographer of the Year Bryn Lennon’s own account of how he put together his award-winning specialist portfolio of images
- 2013 shortlists – Broadcast / Writing / Photography
2013 SJA SPORTS JOURNALISM AWARDS WINNERS
SJA Sports Writer of the Year 2013
Martin Samuel – Daily Mail
SJA Sports Photographer of the Year 2013
Bryn Lennon – Getty Images
SJA Sports Newspaper of the Year 2013
Daily Mail
SJA Sports Broadcaster of the Year 2013 (voted for by SJA members)
Alison Mitchell (BBC)
SJA Doug Gardner Award for services to sports journalism
Jeff Powell
Laureus Sports Website of the Year
Daily Mail
The Times – Highly Commended
The Guardian – Highly Commended
Ian Wooldridge Young Sports Writer
Jack Pitt-Brooke – The Independent
Rajvir Rai – Daily Mail – Highly Commended
Tim Wigmore – Freelance – Highly Commended
Sports News Reporter
David Conn – The Guardian
Martyn Ziegler – Press Association – Highly Commended
Neil Ashton – Daily Mail – Highly Commended
Sports Scoop
Mark Ogden – Telegraph Media Group
Holly Watt and Claire Newell – Telegraph Media Group – Highly Commended
Pete Pattisson – The Guardian – Highly Commended
Sports Feature Writer
Matthew Syed – The Times
Don McRae – The Guardian – Highly Commended
Paul Hayward – Telegraph Media Group – Highly Commended
Matt Lawton – Daily Mail – Highly Commended
Sports News Picture
Toby Melville – Reuters
Andrew Boyers – Action Images – Highly Commended
Laurence Griffiths – Getty Images – Highly Commended
Specialist Sports Portfolio – the Phil Sheldon Trophy
Bryn Lennon – Getty Images
Toby Melville – Reuters
Andrew Redington – Getty Images
Sports Picture
Laurence Griffiths – Getty Images
Clive Rose – Getty Images – Highly Commended
John Sibley – Action Images – Highly Commended
Sports Portfolio
Lee Smith – Action Images
Mike Egerton – PA – Highly Commended
Dave Shopland – Daily Mail – Highly Commended
Specialist Correspondent
Henry Winter – Telegraph Media Group
Neil Harman – The Times – Highly Commended
Mike Atherton – The Times – Highly Commended
Sports Columnist
Matthew Syed – The Times
Patrick Collins – The Mail on Sunday – Highly Commended
Matt Dickinson – The Times -Highly Commended
Regional Writer
Jon Colman – Cumbrian Newspapers
Mark Douglas – NCJ Media – Highly Commended
Mark Taylor – Cambridge News – Highly Commended
Ladbrokes Sports Betting Writer
Greg Wood – The Guardian
Tim Dykes – Sports Wk – Highly Commended
Kevin Pullein – Racing Post – Highly Commended
Cartoonist
Russel Herneman – Freelance
Kerber and Black – Daily Mirror – Highly Commended
Nick Newman – The Sunday Times – Highly Commended
Television Sports Programme (voted for by SJA members)
Sports Life Stories (ITV)
Radio Sports Programme (voted for by SJA members)
My Sporting Life (TalkSport)
David Welch Student Sports Writer
Teddy Cutler (Oxford University)
Siobhan McCall (St Mary’s, Twickenham) – Highly Commended
Jacob Rabinowitz – (Oxford University) – Highly Commended
- For more pictures from sports journalism’s night of nights, click here
- The view from Table 7: Anton Rippon’s regional view of the occasion
- The Sports Journalists’ Association was founded in 1948 and is the world’s largest national membership organisation of sports media. Its sponsors include BT Sport, The National Lottery, Laureus and Ladbrokes. Since 1949, it has staged the country’s longest running annual Sports Awards; this year’s event will be staged in December.
- The Sports Writer of the Year award has been presented since 1976. The Sports Photographer of the Year award has been presented each year since 1977.
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