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Double honours for Daniel Taylor as the Guardian wins four SJA awards

The Guardian’s chief football writer Daniel Taylor
The Guardian’s chief football writer Daniel Taylor, pictured, reported on abuse in football which had ‘vast and far-reaching consequences’, said the judges. Photograph: Tom Dulat/Getty Images

Daniel Taylor picked up two major prizes at Monday night’s prestigious Sports Journalists Association awards for his reporting of the football abuse scandal, being named football journalist of the year and winning scoop of the year.

Taylor’s original Guardian story, published in November, led to the reporting of hundreds of historical allegations of sexual abuse. Last month detectives were examining possible attacks on 526 people, with investigations by 20 police forces who had identified 184 potential suspects and 248 affected clubs at all levels of the game.

Judges said he “wrote the football story of the year, one which made headlines across all media”. They added it was “a huge story with vast and far-reaching consequences well beyond the sport itself” and paid tribute to his “superb, sensitive, powerful journalism”.

There were also awards for Sean Ingle, named specialist correspondent of the year for his athletics reporting, while theguardian.com was named website of the year. Judges said it was “the destination of choice for serious sports fans. Live coverage is invariably elegant, witty and most importantly quick. It boasts some of the finest sports journalism around.”

The Guardian and Observer were also highly commended in six categories: cricket writers Vic Marks and Rob Smyth, columnist Marina Hyde, Television Sport for our Hillsborough documentary, Owen Gibson for sports news reporter, and multimedia package for our coverage of Rio 2016.