A daily sports reporter has retained the title of best regional sports writer for the fourth year running and the fifth time in all.

Jon Colman, who works for the Carlisle-based News & Star and sister weekly the Cumberland News won the award again at the Sports Journalism Awards on Monday.

It is the fifth time in total that Jon has been awarded the prize, having also won it in 2009, before his unbroken run later began.

The awards, run by the Sports Journalists’ Association, also saw two other regional sports writers highly commended – Doug Gillon from Glasgow-based The Herald and Mark Douglas of Newcastle’s Chronicle and Journal – from a shortlist of six announced last month.

Award winner Jon Colman is pictured left interviewing Carlisle United’s David Symington.

Said Jon: “I was very surprised, I’m always surprised to win any award. I know the calibre of the competition was very high.

“I am lucky enough to know some of the lads who made the shortlist. To be mentioned in the same breath as some of those people is something I am quite proud of.

“It is a big honour to win and I have had a lot of support from readers and colleagues.

“It is nice to fly the flag for the regional press in what has been a difficult period for it. There’s still a lot of strength in regional sports journalism.”

The awards were held at a ceremony in London, which were hosted by by sports presenter Jim Rosenthal and SJA president Sir Michael Parkinson, who is due to step down after a decade in the position this year.

Other awards handed out on the night saw Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail named sports writer of the year, while the Mail won sports newspaper of the year.

The Doug Gardner Award for services to sports journalism was won by football commentator Mike Ingham and the sports photographer prize went to Adrian Dennis of AFP.