A sports writer from Sheffield daily The Star has been named the top regional sports journalist in the UK.

Martin Smith scooped the prize at the 34th annual British Sports Journalism awards held in London last night.

Martin emerged victorious ahead of Matthew Beard of the London Evening Standard and Amanda Little of the News & Star, Carlisle, who were each highly commended.

The awards, organised by the Sports Journalists Association, saw the The Times named as the first winner of the new Sports Newspaper of the Year prize.

The Daily Mail’s Martin Samuel was crowned Sports Writer of the Year for the fourth time, while Laurence Griffiths, of Getty Images, was named Sports Photographer of the Year.

Mazher Mahmood of the News of the World won the Sports Scoop of the Year prize after breaking the story of cricket’s spot-fixing scandal.

The prize for Sport News Picture went to Eddie Keogh, of Reuters, whose image proved conclusively that Frank Lampard’s shot for England at the World Cup had crossed the German goal line by some distance.

The full list of winners can be read here.