Sports writer and photographer win Quill awards for work for Guardian Australia

Jonathan Horn scooped best sports feature prize for a series on AFL, while Chris Hopkins won for pictures of a cancer sufferer caring for her sonGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSports writer Jonathan Horn and photographer Chris Hopkins have won Melbourne Press Club awards for their work for Guardian Australia.Guardian Australia was recognised with eight nominations in a range of categories in the 31st annual Quill awards, which were presented in Melbourne on Friday night.Horn won the 2026 award for best sports feature for his series Mourning Three Beloved Footballers, while Hopkins’ images of a woman with metastatic cancer caring for her adult son won best features photograph.The judges said Horn’s collection of features about deaths in AFL families “served as a powerful deep dive into the connection between life, mortality and the sport so many Australians love”.Of Hopkins’ series Kathy’s Last Wish, the judges said the moving images captured the “intimacy, the love, beauty, pathos and patience” of a dying woman caring for her son.Ellen Smith, an assistant picture editor and photographer at Guardian Australia, was highly commended in the photographic features category for her portrait of Martu man Neil Bidu in Parnpajinya in Western Australia.Guardian Australia’s courts and justice reporter, Nino Bucci, and deputy picture editor, Blake Sharp-Wiggins, were highly commended in the excellence in Indigenous affairs reporting category for their story The killing of Kumanjayi Walker.The Herald Sun’s Robyn Riley took home the top prize, the Gold Quill, as well as the award for best news report in writing for her scoop about an IVF mix-up that led to a woman unknowingly giving birth to a stranger’s baby.ABC News journalist, Adele Ferguson, was named the 50th Graham Perkin Australian journalist of the year, for her investigative work exposing failures of Australia’s childcare system.Guardian Australia’s Queensland correspondent, Ben Smee, was nominated in the prestigious category for his Broken Trust series, a two-year investigation into the handling of domestic violence cases that exposed how police failed women who were killed.Former ABC journalist, Heather Ewart, received the press club’s lifetime achievement award, with the judges praising her outstanding career as a political reporter, overseas correspondent and more recently, presenter on the Backroads program.Guardian Australia science reporter, Petra Stock, was nominated in the excellence in science, medical and health reporting category for her story about animal advocates arguing a domestic violence study that strangled rats should not have been approved.Guardian columnist Ranjana Srivastava was nominated for the Keith Dunstan Quill for commentary for her writing about palliative care.Selina Zhang, of 9News, was named young journalist of the year.