MATTHEW NIXON, sports editor for Student Direct, won best sports journalist at the Guardian Student Media Awards last week.
Held at Coco Club in Camden and presented by comic Hardeep Singh Koli, Nixon was surprised to beat the competition from other student papers.
He commented: “I’m a bit shocked really. It was a long shot applying in the first place as I was in my first year and had only been writing for a short while.
“I felt that if I didn’t win then I wouldn’t be that bothered as I have another two years to improve my writing skills and turn out some better articles, but surprisingly I won.”
On receiving his prize of £500 from Singh Koli, the Glaswegian comic joked: “That should keep you in cocaine until at least the end of term!”
Nixon was also happy with the comments on his work by a personal hero of his Paul Hayward, a sports writer at the Daily Mail.
He described Nixon’s work as, “streets ahead of anyone else on the shortlist,” in a short clip shown of the judging process before the announcement of the winner.
Also nominated for his work on Student Direct was last year’s columnist Tehmoor Khan.
The University of York won the most awards including the highly prestigious Student Newspaper of the Year Award, with their paper York Vision.
York Vision was nominated for five awards and won more than any other student newspaper in the country.
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