WRITING shortlist

The immense interest in Premier League club ownership is reflected in the Scoop shortlist for the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, a category that has undergone a slight switch since last time out.

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Instead of inviting entries, a panel of expert judges deliberated and then selected the single sports news stories that they felt had the greatest impact in 2022.

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The resulting shortlist also includes a sit-down with an unsettled megastar and a less heralded chat with a courageous, trailblazing teenager.

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The stories of Chelsea and Liverpool being put for sale were broken by Matt Law (The Telegraph) and David Ornstein (The Athletic) respectively, while the major football interviews chosen by the judges were headline-making one-on-ones with Cristiano Ronaldo (Piers Morgan Uncensored, TalkTV) and Jake Daniels (Sky Sports News).

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Completing the Scoop category are Mike Walters' Daily Mirror article from March about boxing legend Wladimir Klitschko’s ‘biggest fight’ on the frontline in war-torn Ukraine, and the surprise news at the start of the football season that the classified results would no longer be read out in the traditional way on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sports Report.

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That was carried in Mike Keegan’s Sports Agenda column in the Daily Mail, which - along with the Mail on Sunday and Mailplus - can lay claim to 12 separate shortlist appearances, just pipping The Times and Sunday Times which has 11.

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Meanwhile, three of the shortlisted entrants for Columnist will be chasing their third success in the category - Oliver Holt (Mail on Sunday), Matthew Syed (Times & Sunday Times) and last year’s winner, Jonathan Liew (Guardian).

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Each is also competing against a ‘stablemate’, namely Ian Herbert (Mail+), Owen Slot (Times & Sunday Times) and cartoonist David Squires (Guardian).

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Herbert is one of a handful of journalists to be shortlisted in more than one category. He is also in the running for Feature Writer alongside his Mail colleague Riath Al-Samarrai, who is a contender for News Reporter as well.

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Ornstein is up for both that award and the newly-created Football News Reporter gong, categories in which he will compete alongside Rob Draper (Mail on Sunday). Like Ornstein in Scoop, Draper appears on a third shortlist with his coverage of the Champions League final chaos in Paris selected for the Social Media Journalism prize.

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The latter category straddles both the Writing and Broadcast sections, as does another new addition in Sports Content Organisation, the contenders for which will be announced on Friday.

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David Walker, chairman of the Writing judges, said: "The shortlists reflect the high standard of writing and interviewing across the board in all 11 of these categories.

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"Overall we had 262 entries - a total of 917 articles - which our 78 judges whittled down to today’s elite. And it’s from these shortlists that our supreme champion, the Sportswriter of the Year, will be named at the awards on March 6.

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"I must thank our judges for their diligent, insightful work. The number of entries to some categories outweighed others but the judges were aware of what's required of them and have now delivered their verdicts.

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"One final point - it was my privilege to work with the late, great Ian Wooldridge and he would be proud of the standard and talents shown in the category that carries his name and is affectionately known as 'Ones to Watch'.

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"Woolers was a great supporter of young journalists. Looking at the entries for this year’s awards, our industry is in good hands."

The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony, sponsored by The National Lottery, taking place at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London on Monday 6 March, 2023. Tickets and tables are available to purchase now via the awards website.