Getty Images’ Alex Davidson named Canon Young Sports Photographer of the Year at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards 2024; Mail Sport’s Aadam Patel and Charlotte Daly win Writing and Broadcast ‘On Air’ categories respectively; Sky Sports’ Harshini Mehta takes ‘Off Air’ prize; Ervin Ang lands SJA Academy Award…
The ability of young sports journalists and photographers to connect with audiences has proved crucial in determining the ‘Ones to Watch’ and Academy prize winners at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards.
The category decisions for the 2024 edition are announced here in advance of Awards Night on Monday 24 March.
Writing, photography and two broadcast honours are accompanied by the SJA Academy Award, which is for those at the beginning of their sports media journeys.
The winners and all those shortlisted are invited to attend the gala Awards night at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in central London as guests of the SJA. The winners will collect their trophies on stage at the event.
To book tickets for the awards dinner, visit the British Sports Journalism Awards website
Davidson delivers Canon Young Sports Photographer victory
Four years on from being the YSP runner-up, Alex Davidson takes the top prize and also collects a Canon EOS R3 camera, courtesy of our sponsors.
The judging panel, led by AFP’s Paul Ellis, praised Alex’s portfolio for its variety and individuality.
His five pictures for Getty Images were of Team GB kayaker Kimberley Woods at the Paris Olympics; England prop Ellis Genge in action against South Africa; Scotland v South Africa framed by shadows at the Women’s T20 World Cup; and from the Paralympics, USA gold medal-winning archer Matt Stutzman, and South Africa’s Lucas Sithole and Donald Ramphadi celebrating a historic quad doubles bronze in wheelchair tennis.
“Alex demonstrated his ability to cover a wide range of sports and not always in the most conventional way,” said the judges. “He is a worthy winner from an encouraging amount of entrants.”
Manchester City club photographer Isaac Parkin and freelance racing photographer Megan Dent took second and third place respectively.
The judges also hailed the “incredible talent and commitment” in this category overall, adding: “Any of the shortlisted entries stood a chance of taking the prize.”
See all the images from every shortlisted entrant in our Photography gallery
Patel’s prize-winning Writing portfolio includes shortlisted Scoop
In four of the last eight editions of the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, the Young Sportswriter of the Year category has been won by a Mail Sport journalist.
Following in the footsteps of Adam Crafton (2017), Daniel Matthews (2018) and Isaan Khan (2022) is Aadam Patel, who was the runner-up in the category 12 months ago.
The award was inaugurated back in 2007 as the Ian Wooldridge Trophy, named after the five-time SJA Sportswriter of the Year who was with the Daily Mail for nearly a half-century and who had passed away earlier that year.
“Aadam’s three entries, particularly his revelatory investigation into the Champions League final fiasco, demonstrated an impressive ability to engage with the reader through insightful and impactful journalism,” said the judges.
That Champions League final article is a contender in the Scoop category, while Aadam is also shortlisted this year for Content Creator and ‘Ones to Watch – On Air’.
Runner-up in the ‘Ones to Watch – Writing’ category was Ben Fisher of The Guardian, and taking third place was Aadam’s Mail Sport colleague, Charlotte Daly.
Reflecting on the eight-strong shortlist and entry pool as a whole, the judges said this was “another impressive year building off a remarkable previous year refining journalistic expertise, delivering stories with a stronger style and tone, and deepening audience connection.”
Back-to-back awards success for ‘On Air’ champion Daly
Charlotte Daly was up on stage at last year’s SJA British Sports Journalism Awards as the winner of the Social Media Journalist category.
The Mail Sport broadcast journalist will return this time around for the presentation of her ‘Ones to Watch – On Air’ gold medal.
“Charlotte had a varied portfolio of work that showed some excellent original journalism, combined with a really engaging delivery style,” said the judges, who added that they were “impressed with her storytelling”.
Charlotte was also shortlisted in the ‘Ones to Watch – Writing’ category, and last year she was included on the Sports Illustrated ’30 Under 30′ Power List for boxing.
Second in ‘On Air’ was Sioned Dafydd of Rondo Media (S4C), with Matchroom Boxing’s Jamie Ward third.
Mehta makes big broadcast impact in ‘Off Air’ category
Broadcast journalists from Sky Sports achieved a clean sweep of the podium spots in the ‘Ones to Watch – Off Air’ category last year.
This time, it’s Harshini Mehta – assistant producer in Sky Sports’ Bespoke Content Team – who takes the gold medal.
The judges described Harshini as “a skilled producer demonstrating versatility and creativity on the biggest stage, working with sport’s biggest names.”
They added: “Harshini’s dedication to storytelling, meticulous attention to detail, and ability to craft impactful features on diverse and sensitive topics make her an invaluable asset to any production team.”
Among Harshini’s output in 2024 was “Real Talk”, which is shortlisted for SJA Podcast of the Year, while the Bespoke Content Team are contenders in the new Sport for Change Journalism category as well.
There are joint runners-up in the ‘Off Air’ category this year, with content producer Nathanael Hutchinson (BBC Sport) and Alex Biddle (Mail Sport) sharing silver.
Completing the top three is Nicky Anderson, the Head of Narrative at Stak, which has seen “The English Disease” shortlisted in both the Audio Documentary and Podcast categories.
SJA Academy Award honour for Ang
The SJA is delighted to announce Ervin Ang as the winner of this year’s SJA Academy Award in association with talkSPORT.
This is the third year that the SJA has provided an opportunity for those with less than one year of experience in sports journalism, or those who have never worked in the industry full-time, to be recognised at the industry awards.
Ervin moved from Singapore to the UK in August and is currently studying for an MA in Sports Journalism at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.
He is writing for their Sports Gazette website and is also media officer at Hanworth Villa FC.
Highly commended were Alice Wright, who studied journalism at De Montfort University and volunteered in 2024 with Leicester City in the Community; Emma Seligman, also studying at St Mary’s Twickenham and writing for Sports Gazette; and Nadan Hadzic, who has expertise in Eastern European football and is building his experience across various media disciplines, while never having worked full-time in sports journalism.
Judge and SJA committee member Rachel Steinberg said: “Once again, we received a large number of incredibly high-quality entries for the Academy Award from a huge range of entrants, encouragingly strongly reflecting the society we live in.
“The judges felt Ervin’s entries were not only strong in impact and well-crafted, but his explanations of how they came to be highlighted so many qualities that make a great journalist – creativity, curiosity, resourcefulness and gumption.
“We look forward to following his next steps! Congratulations, Ervin, and to all those shortlisted.”