1,273 candidates submitted their work for a shot at the first international sport media competition organized by the AIPS (the International Sports Press Association) and Ubitennis are pleased to announced that we have won an award. Placing among the top three websites around the world.
The AIPS will hand out awards to the three best journalists in eight different categories: Video Documentary, Video Athlete Profile, Audio, Writing Best Column, Writing Best Colour Piece, Weblog, Photography Sport Action and Photography Portfolio.
I had never submitted my work for an award in my life as I always had very little faith in myself and these type of competitions. The AIPS was founded in 1924 when Paris hosted the Olympic Games. The abbreviation for the name of the association is based on the French spelling of Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive. This year in September my curiosity got the best of me when I received the following video:
I thought that my article about the US Open final, which was surprisingly won by Naomi Osaka over Serena Williams could be a good fit for the Weblog category. The match will be remembered for Serena’s outbursts with chair umpire Carlos Ramos and her words in her post-match press conference, during which Williams accused Ramos of sexism. Naomi Osaka was crowned US Open champion in a very hostile environment with spectators that protested against the outcome of the match and booed the Japanese player without even knowing exactly what happened during Serena’s controversy.
While submitting my article for the AIPS awards, I realized that I wasn’t alone in this journey and I had the strength of a website such as Ubitennis behind me. Ubitennis is the only tennis website available in three different languages with 12 million views per year and 30 million pages viewed and certified by Google Analytics. The website can count on plenty of talented collaborators and interactive readers, whose posts and comments amount to 650,000 per year.
Ubitennis has been a great school for many young (and not so young) aspiring journalists, who have been given the opportunity to cover international tennis events in the most prestigious and historical venues while acquiring the necessary skills to become professional journalists and reporters for different media outlets, such as TV, radio, websites, magazines, press offices and several other platforms.
I am not sure if the 19 AIPS international judges took into account all of those factors while selecting the top 3 nominees, but I would like to think that it might be the case. I have personally covered 150 Grand Slams, 7 Olympic Games, 4 America’s Cup and the Swimming World Championships. Meanwhile, Ubitennis collaborators have covered more than 200 tournaments as a testament to Ubitennis’ quality and value.
My professional history as a journalist has also provided me with a great deal of personal accolades, such as the recognition I received at this year’s US Open.
I am getting ready to cover my 28th Australian Open and also attend the awards ceremony in Switzerland, which happens to be in the middle of the first Slam of the year. Even if the two locations are very far from each other and the jet lag is not easy to deal with, I would like to attend both events.
The 20 articles that have been selected among about 100 in the Weblog category are as follows:
- AKINBODE OGUNTUYI, Sad Ikeme News and the Hidden Consequences for Nigeria, Booday10.com (Nigeria)
- ANASTASIA SOLOVYEVA, Золото севера. Обзор полётного чемпионата мира в Оберстдорфе (The Gold of the North. Overview of the FIS Ski FlightWorld Championships in Oberstdorf), Sportsru (Russia)
- CARLOS HERNÁNDEZ, Argentina Taekwondo Open 2018 causó impacto en su 5 ta edición (Argentina Taekwondo Open 2018 made an impact in its fifth edition), www.mundotaekwondo.com (Venezuela)
- GIDEON KOFI NYAMEKYE, Stephen Appiah: The Meteoric Rise of an Urchin to a Soccer Churchill , Kickgh.com (Ghana)
- JAMES M DORSEY, Parallels between Turkish soccer and general elections could prove uncanny, Middeast Soccer (Singapore)
- JHON OSORIO, Tour 2018 – Día 12: El día que Egan se graduó (Tour 2018 – Day 12: The day in which Egan graduated) , El rincón de JJ/Blogs El Espectador (Colombia)
- JOSE RODRIGUEZ, Vida en medio de muerte subita (Life in the midst of sudden death), Capitanes de Arecibo BSN (Puerto Rico)
- JUAN CARLOS ROSALES MIELES, Pierre de Haiti a Francia y al mundo (Pierre of Haiti aims from France and the world) , Gimnasialatina.com (Argentina)
- KAZUYUKI YAMAGUCHI, Le Journal Sportive, pressports.com (Japan)
- LUCIAN OPREA, Tenis total: SIMONA HALEP, CAMPIOANA LA ROLAND GARROS (Total Tennis: SIMONA HALEP, ROLAND GARROS CHAMPION), Lucianopreasport (Romania)
- MA DEXING, 我所亲历的这些年精英青少年足球》系列报道 (The Years of Elite Youth Football I Have Experienced”), Dexingshe-official (China)
- MARCOS PAULO SOUZA LIMA, Blog Drible de Corpo (Body Dribble), Correio Braziliense (Brazil)
- MICAELA PISERCHIA, El patín no es cuestión de nenas (Figure skating is not a matter for girls), Argentina Amateur Deporte (Argentina)
- MIRIAM TERRUZZI, Spirito del Lupo (Spirit of the Wolf), E mi alzo sui pedali (Italy)
- NICK BUTLER, Nick Butler: There is a gap between the values sport has, wants to have and should have, insidethegames.biz (United Kingdom)
- ROBERT LIVINGSTONE, BidWeek: As 2026 Olympic Bid Race Begins To Collapse, IOC Must Stop Talking And Do Something, GamesBids.com (Canada)
- STEFAN NESTLER, Everest-Ski-Permit – eine Farce! (Everest Ski Permit – a farce!), Abenteuer Sport – Blog der Deutschen Welle (DW) (Germany)
- UBALDO SCANAGATTA, (Ramos was right in Serena’s controversy! Osaka, what a champion!) Ubitennis.com (Italy)
- YIN MA, Exclusive! A Wechat log between two legendary women, Lang Ping and Li Yan, highlighting their resiliance, We Love Volley (China)
- YIN MA, Exclusive Interview! The More Splendid, the More Silent. Zhu Ting: With Such Fames, Keep it Better i, We Love Volley (China)
