A picture by Herald photographer Kenny Rodger has been chosen as the best single photograph at the national sports journalism awards.
The picture showed Auckland and All Black prop Craig Dowd on a rainy night at Eden Park.
The judges said it captured the conflict that is rugby, and could have been a battle scene straight out of Braveheart.
The Herald's Brett Phibbs was a finalist in the best photograph category, with his dramatic photograph of fencing action at the Sydney Olympics.
Sunday Star-Times reporter Marc Hinton won the top honour at the Hillary Commission-sponsored awards, which were presented at the Wairakei Resort Hotel last night.
Hinton was named Air New Zealand Sports Journalist of the Year, after winning the Philips Award for Sports Reporting and the Steinlager Award for Feature Writing. The Herald's Wynne Gray was a finalist in the sports reporting section.
Winners of all eight main awards were eligible for the top honour.
Along with Rodger and Hinton, the finalists were the Listener's Steve Braunias (who won the Spalding Award for Best Columnist), TV3's Howard Dobson (adidas Award for Television Reporting), Radio New Zealand's Todd Niall (Philips Award for Radio Reporting), the Evening Post's Jamie Troughton (New Zealand Herald-D. J. Cameron Young Writers Award), and freelance photographer Joanna Caird (Hillary Commission Sports Award).
The INL Best Provincial Awards were won by New Plymouth's Daily News sports editor, Gordon Brown (writer), and the Nelson Mail's Jim Tannock (photographer).
The first Garry Frew Memorial trophy for outstanding contribution to provincial sports journalism - honouring Northern Advocate sports journalist Frew, who died this year - went to Gisborne's John Heikell.
The Hillary Commission Lifetime Award was presented to Wellington newspaper journalist Alex Veysey.
Honours for sports photographers
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