Alkass Digital
Lausanne, Switzerland - On Monday night at the beautiful Beau-Rivage Palace amongst a crowd of significant sports figures such as International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Bach, 24 finalists received awards throughout 8 different categories at the inaugural AIPS Sports Media Awards.
Marca journalist José Ignacio Pérez received the first prize for Best Colour Piece for his reportage about Football in Auschwitz. Igor Rabiner won the other writing category, Best Column.
Video documentary went for Emanuela Audisio (Mexico 1968) and Athlete Profile for The People’s Fighters, a film about Teófilo Stevenson and Cuban boxing.
After narrowing down 1,273 submissions from 119 countries worldwide, an eleven-member jury and the president determined the winners of each category. Each award winner received a trophy and first place received prize money of USD $8.000, second place received USD $3.000, and third place received USD $2.000.
One very special moment during the ceremony occurred when Ghanaian journalist Anas Armeyaw Anas was acknowledged by AIPS President Gianni Merlo with an award for investigative reporting. He entered the stage and asked for a minute of silence as he dedicated his award to Ahmed Hussein-Suale, part of his investigative team, who was recently killed after telling stories of football corruption in Ghana.
In his opening speech, Bach expressed that “the IOC was very sad to hear of the loss of Hussein-Suale, being murdered for exercising his profession.”
“I receive this award in honour of my colleague, Ahmed. I know he would have been here with me to receive this award if not for the unfortunate incident. But we will never surrender, because journalism is not a crime,” emphasized Anas after receiving his trophy.
The Awards were widely regarded as the Oscars of sports journalism. And so the curtains closed on the successful first edition of the AIPS Sport Media Awards, following a celebration of journalism and sports media excellence.
The results of the category award winners are as follows:
PHOTOGRAPHY - SPORT ACTION
1. VINCENT RIEMERSMA, Skating Shadows, PZC (Netherlands)
2. ALEXEY FILIPPOV, Fourcade, Sputnik (Russia)
3. NORBERT SCHMIDT, Mud Fight, Norbert Schmidt Sports Photo (Germany)
PHOTOGRAPHY - PORTFOLIO
1. ADAM PRETTY, Budapest World Swimming Championships, Getty Images (Germany)
2. XU LIU (? ?), Young gymnasts, Xinhua news agency (China)
3. PATRICK B. KRAEMER, Aquatics, Magicpbk/EPA/Keystone (Switzerland)
WRITING - BEST COLUMN
1. IGOR RABINER, The Athletes or the Slaves? Rabiner Against of Boycotting Olympics, Sport-Express (Russia)
2. OLIVER BROWN, Gymnast Biles' abuse scandal is lesson unlearned, The Daily Telegraph (United Kingdom)
3. DUMITRU GRAUR, Tears of an old commentator, Sport in Romania (Romania)
WRITING - BEST COLOUR PIECE
1. JOSÉ IGNACIO PÉREZ HERNÁNDEZ, "Yo jugué al fútbol en Auschwitz" ("I played football in Auschwitz"), MARCA (Spain)
2. ANTJE WINDMANN, Der Mensch im Trikot, DER SPIEGEL (Germany)
3. CHRISTOF GERTSCH / MIKAEL KROGERUS, 9.79 / Der gefallene Star (The fallen star), Das Magazin/Tamedia (Switzerland)
VIDEO - DOCUMENTARY
1. EMANUELA AUDISIO, 1968 - Sport & Revolution, 3D Produzioni (Italy)
2. DAN GOLDBERG, The Haka, Mint Pictures (Australia)
3. HE ZHU, The Football Roadmap, CCTV SPORTS , CCTV International Network Co., Ltd and Beijing SDT Media Co., Ltd (China)
VIDEO - ATHLETE PROFILE
1. DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA / GREGG GROGGEL / PETER BERG, The People’s Fighters: Teofilo Stevenson and the Legend of Cuban Boxing, Olympic Channel (Spain)
2. ANTHONY AUDUREAU, Ousmane et la lutte enchantée (Ousmane, Sandguine wrestler), Demain Dakar (France)
3. EMANUELA AUDISIO, Pelé's last show, 3D Produzioni (Italy)
AUDIO
1. PIRMIN STYRNOL, Horst Eckel - Für immer ein Held von Bern (Horst Eckel - Forever a hero of Bern), SWR2 (Germany)
2. AARON KEARNEY, Orchids Bloom, ABC Radio (Australia)
3. DARIO RICCI, Franco Nones: per tutto l'oro ...del fondo (Franco Nones, at walking pace), Radio24 IlSole24Ore (Italy)
JOURNALISTIC WEBLOG
1. YIN MA, Exclusive! A Wechat log between two legendary women, Lang Ping and Li Yan, highlighting their resiliance, We Love Volley (China)
2. NICK BUTLER, Nick Butler: There is a gap between the values sport has, wants to have and should have, insidethegames.biz (United Kingdom)
3. UBALDO SCANAGATTA, Serena…Ramos aveva ragione! Osaka, che campionessa! (Ramos was right in Serena’s controversy! Osaka, what a champion!), Ubitennis.com (Italy)