A Dawn.com journalist has become the first Pakistani to win the top prize in the ‘Young Reporters Writing’ category at the International Sport Press Association’s 2024 AIPS Sport Media Awards, which honour the “world’s finest sports journalists”.
According to a press release issued on Tuesday, the award ceremony was held in Rabat, the capital of Morocco.
Anushe Engineer was chosen as the winner from three finalists in her category, surpassing France’s Louis Boulay and the United Kingdom’s Issy Ronald, for her feature, ‘It’s all or nothing for Arshad Nadeem in Paris’. The finalists were shortlisted from 37 entries initially selected from the total submissions.
The award comes with an AIPS Scholarship at a top sporting event.
In the quiet, unobtrusive manner that has become his trademark in the elite men’s javelin, Nadeem stormed the Stade de France field to take a terrific, historic gold at August’s finals at the Paris Olympics with a mammoth 92.97 metres off his second throw.
It was an Olympic record, erasing the existing one of 90.57m, set by Andreas Thorkildsen at Beijing 2008. For the underpowered Pakistan contingent in Paris, this was arguably the country’s greatest moment in decades. His gold is Pakistan’s only gold medal outside of hockey. It is also Pakistan’s first medal of any colour since 1992.
Engineer’s feature focused on the trials and tribulations faced by the athlete in his career leading up to the historic Olympic gold.
The award was presented by jury members Andreas Schirmer and Vincent Amalvy, head of sports at Agence France-Presse, with the latter describing the finalist feature as a “great story”.
Lost for words, Engineer said she did not have an idea of what she was getting involved in upon deciding on the story in 2023.
“I really had no idea what was going on when I set out to do this story and I just went and did it,” she said of the achievement.
Engineer is a Karachi-based journalist reporting on human rights, politics and sports.