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BBC WALES football correspondent, Rob Phillips, is to host the University of South Wales Sport Recognition Awards.
The event is the second of its kind and seeks to recognise academic and performance success among students, coaches and partners. There is also an emphasis on those who have shown significant contribution to community sport.
Phillips has been the voice of football on BBC Radio Wales for decades. He started his career straight from school, joining the Pontypridd Observer/Rhondda Leader series as a trainee reporter.
He moved to the Western Morning News in Plymouth before returning ‘home’ to work for the South Wales Argus in Newport and then the South Wales Echo in Cardiff before joining the BBC.
He was named Welsh Sports Journalist of the Year in 2013. He is known for his enthusiastic commentary and his straight forward talking.
Among the awards he’ll be announcing is one for the Best Sports Journalist, chosen from the first ever cohort of Sports Journalism students at USW – the only BA in Sports Journalism in Wales.
“I’m delighted to be asked to host the awards, particularly as it is the first year of the Sports Journalism course and it will give me a chance to take a closer look at the budding reporters coming through the ranks – and eyeing up my job no doubt,” said Phillips.
There will also be an award for the Outstanding Student of the Year.
Last year Sociology undergraduate Stephanie Allen scooped the big prize, despite suffering with scoliosis – which leads to curvature of the spine – and juvenile arthritis, which means she is in constant pain.
Stephanie was interested in judo as a child and started competing properly as a teenager. She got involved in British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) competition and won bronze in last year’s finals.
At the inaugural awards last year former Welsh rugby international Nigel Walker was inducted into the prestigious USW Sport Hall of Fame.
Walker represented Great Britain as a high hurdler before switching to rugby, earning 17 international caps for Wales.
He is currently National Director of the English Institute of Sport, having previously been Head of Sport at BBC Wales.
The second USW Sport Recognition Awards take place at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff tomorrow evening.
Feature image courtesy of BBC Wales
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