'Independent' journalists honoured at major sports awards

The consistently outstanding work of The Independent's chief sports writer, James Lawton, was recognised last night when he was named Columnist of the Year at the prestigious Sports Journalism Awards in London.

In an excellent night for The Independent, photographer David Ashdown picked up two awards, for best sports picture and best sports news picture. The judges in both categories looked no further than Ashdown's brilliant photograph of England's Andrew Strauss leaping to his left to take an astonishing one-handed catch to dismiss Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist off Andrew Flintoff's bowling during the fourth Ashes Test at Trent Bridge last summer.