MA Sports Journalism student at St Mary's University, Twickenham Daniel Gallan was named Sports Journalist of the Year at the annual National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Awards for Excellence Ceremony at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland on Thursday 28th November.
Receiving his award from Sky Sports presenter Dharmesh Sheth, Gallan paid tribute to his course tutors at St Mary's and fellow students who worked with him on the Sports Gazette.
Gallan began his journalism career covering the music scene in his native South Africa before specialising in sports reporting. Keen to develop his skills, he enrolled on the NCTJ accredited course at St Mary’s University in September and quickly started picking up freelance work for publications in the UK as well as South Africa.
The highlight of the year for Gallan was working at the Cricket World Cup, covering every South African match, the semi-finals and the extraordinary final that saw England beat New Zealand. His coverage of the tournament, which includes over 80 articles, is curated on his blog.
Gallan is currently completing a three month internship with CNN International and will be heading back to South Africa to cover the England Cricket Tour for the British press.
His achievement represents a hat-trick for the Masters programme in Sports Journalism at St Mary’s. He follows Mats Friedrix, now a producer with DAZN and Matt Horsman, working at BT Sport Rugby, who both won the same award in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Course Leader, Dr Daragh Minogue said: “I was delighted to be there to celebrate with Daniel. He’s a prolific sportswriter and not afraid to tackle difficult subjects on and off the field.
The MA in Sports Journalism at St Mary's was the first specialist course in sports journalism to be professionally accredited by the NCTJ (National Council for the Training of Journalists) in 2010. If you want to find out more about the programme, you can email daragh.minogue@stmarys.ac.uk
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