03/01/07

Nancy Armour a double winner; David Guttenfelder wins photo award

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- National writer Nancy Armour was a double winner, and golf writer Doug Ferguson won story of the year for the second straight year in the annual writing contest for AP staffers judged by Associated Press Sports Editors.

Other winners included tennis writer Howard Fendrich, deadline writing, for Andre Agassi's final match at the U.S. Open; and John Marshall, enterprise, for a piece on the hunt for Bigfoot.

Photo awards went to David Guttenfelder of Tokyo, Mark Terrill of Los Angeles and Charles Krupa of Boston.

Armour won the Will Grimsley Award for outstanding body of work for the second straight year and also for best feature, a profile of former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett.

her portfolio included columns on figure skating costumes, Togo's first trip to the World Cup and New Orleans reveling in the Saints' return to the Superdome; Michelle Kwan's farewell at the Turin Olympics; and a profile of football coach John Gagliardi of Division III power St. John's in Minnesota.

"Her piece on figure skating costumes was so well done, it did more than keep the interest of the judges, but left them asking, 'Why didn't we think of that?'" said Jim Jenks, executive sports editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"With lines such as, 'She has chased that medal for a decade, coming so close twice that she could feel its heavy weight around her neck. Now she is headed home, her neck as heavy as her heart,' Armour captured Michelle Kwan's defining Olympic moment in her story telling," he said.

Armour's feature entry on Clarett was "an excellent example of writing a compelling feature, albeit a personality profile, on a subject that isn't talking," Jenks said.

Contributing to that story were AP sports writers Tom Withers of Cleveland, Chris Jenkins of Milwaukee and Pat Graham of Denver.

Besides Jenks, judges included Lynn Hoppes, executive sports editor of the Orlando Sentinel, and Mike Fannin, assistant managing editor/sports for the Kansas City Star.

Judging took place at APSE's annual winter meeting in Long Beach, Calif.

Winners will be honored at the organization's June convention in St. Louis.

Ferguson's story of Tiger Woods' emotional British Open victory following the death of his father resonated with the judges.

"Doug described the scene so well that you could feel the emotion for Tiger as he buried his head in the shoulder of caddie Steve Williams," Jenks said. "Even if you didn't see the event on television or hear about it, you can read his story nine months later, and it still puts you there."

Ferguson picked up the same award last year for his work on Jack Nicklaus' farewell at St. Andrews and Woods' victory there.

Fendrich's deadline work at the Open drew the following comments:

"The writer captured the emotion and drama of the moment with a combination of story-telling and great use of quotes," Jenks said. "The writer has great insight for the game, in general, and Agassi, in particular, and he used well-crafted sentences and paragraphs to deliver the goods to the reader. A super, heart-tugging read."

John Marshall's award was for a story about a three-day search in the wilds of Oregon for the legendary Sasquatch.

"All along, I was hoping that Bigfoot would be found, while common sense was telling me that it was not likely," Jenks said. "In the end, reality won out, but one could feel the disappointment when the trip and story concluded."

Marshall's win as the first for asap, The Associated Press' multimedia service for readers in their 20s and 30s. It was also a first-time entry for an asap writer.

Guttenfelder won the AP's Thomas V. diLustro award for best portfolio, consisting of a feature story on a small bodybuilding gym in Kabul, Afghanistan, as well as individual images of cricket, basketball, baseball, soccer, kite flying and Afghanistan's national sport of buzkashi.

"A clear-cut winner, the judges were taken to a world they have never seen," Jenks said. "It was the bleeding buzkashi player in Afghanistan and the cricket-playing kids in Pakistan. The photographs captured a uniqueness of a society so far from our own."

Terrill won best feature for a photo of LeBron James, head bowed, listening to the national anthem with a video monitor of the American flag in the background during the world basketball championships.

Krupa won best action for a shot of a picture-perfect save by Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin.