Jonathan Liew again named columnist of the year as SJAs honour Rob Burrow

The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew was named columnist of the year for a second successive time at the British Sports Journalism Awards.

Liew, who joined the Guardian in 2019, collected the award at the Westminster Park Plaza event, where broadcaster Piers Morgan was among the winners and Ally McCoist was one of the most popular winners on the night.

Awarding Liew’s prize, the SJA’s citation read: “For the winner, the judges talked of ‘a strong moral compass guiding writing of eloquence, authority and panache’.”

Morgan collected his scoop of the year award for his interview with Cristiano Ronaldo which precipitated the footballer’s exit from Manchester United. He quipped that “until yesterday evening [the player] was the most iconic No 7 in Manchester United history”.

McCoist collected the gong for pundit of the year and after saying “the competition was fierce” couldn’t resist another dig at United’s travails by stating: “I don’t think Roy [Keane] has had a worse 24 hours.”

Elsewhere, the BBC’s Football Focus won Television Show of the Year, while Documentary of the Year went to Rob Burrow: Living With MND, which was aired on BBC Breakfast.

Burrow, who was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2019 after a legendary rugby league career with Leeds Rhinos, was in attendance in London to collect his award, and received a standing ovation from the audience.