Overtime introduces the new writers looking to break into the industry and become sports journalism’s stars of the future.
Name: Izzie Sewell
No. 1 Sport: Hockey and the team she supports is Wimbledon
No. 2 Sport: Football and Cricket
Favourite Sporting Memory: When she scored a century in cricket which is 100 runs.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: When Ollie Watkins scored a goal in the Semi Final against the Netherlands which occurred during the 90th minute which meant that England got through to the Euros final.
Career Ambition: Sports commentater
Role Model in Sport Media: Clare Balding
Embed from Getty ImagesName : Joshua Kirby
No. 1 Sport: Football
No. 2 Sport: Cricket
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: A fixture that took place this year saw the Brighton Panthers overcome a feisty Reading University side to win the Southern University League Cup.
Favourite Sporting Memory: A cricket match being played at the county cricket ground in Chelmsford, Essex. Joshua’s team unfortunately lost the match however the day out largely outweighed the loss.
Role Model in Sport Media: Brian Lara, regarded as ‘the best batsman to have ever lived’ in his opinion. Being a batsman himself, Josh looks up to Brian as a role model and definitely someone who he aspires to be.
Embed from Getty ImagesName: Charlotte Farrow
No. 1 Sport: Tennis. One of her favourite players is Coco Gauff, who she saw play at Wimbledon when Gauff was only 15. Out of the Tennis big three, Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal, she prefers Rafael Nadal
No. 2 Sport: Charlotte’s second favourite sport is football. She developed a love of it through her mum and her grandpa and even owns her grandpa’s scarf from the 1993 season. Her favourite United player now is Lisandro Martinez, and all time is Wayne Rooney.
Favourite Sporting Memory: Watched the US Open 2023 in New York where Gauff, at 19, won over Aryna Sabalenka. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ0XQWWFIAo
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: In the Para-Olympics when Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid won gold to ‘Seal an historic career Golden Slam’.
Career Ambition: Court reporter at Wimbledon or a reporter and Man United.
Role Model in Sport Media: Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and former Man United goalkeeper, Mary Earps. Her favourite role model in sport media in particular would be Claire Balding, especially in this summer’s Olympic and Para-Olympic games
Embed from Getty ImagesName: Gia Nanton
No 1 Sport: Gymnastics.
No 2 sport: Basketball. Favourite team: Golden State Warriors
Favourite sporting memory: Gia travelled to the Bahamas to compete in a gymnastics tournament and she came 1st place after having excelled in the bar apparatus sector of the competition.
Favourite sporting highlight in 2024: The inspiring performances of Simone Biles at the 2024 Paris Olympics captured Gia’s imagination. Below is a link to a YouTube video, in which shows Biles’s fantastic performance.
Career ambition: Completing her Sports Journalism degree.
Role model in sports media: Shams Charania, American sports reporter for the Athletic where he covers the NBA. Gia finds Shams more interesting as he appeals to the younger crowd of the NBA.
Embed from Getty ImagesName: Louis Selling
No. 1 Sport: Louis is a big football fan in particular Brighton and Hove Albion and has been his whole life, he even has a tattoo on his leg of ex Brighton now Borussia Dortmund player Pascal Gross.
No. 2 Sport: Loves watching golf, however, doesn’t have a favourite player just enjoys the sport as a whole.
Favourite Sporting Memory: An under 13s Sunday league game particularly resonates with Louis, with the euphoric memory of scoring from a corner, when 2-0 down, which contributed to this team Crowhurst going on to win 4-2 against their rivals. Louis admittedly didn’t mean to go for goal from the corner, nevertheless this is moment Louis looks back on with joy to this day.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Alex Yee winning the gold medal in the men’s triathlon at Paris Olympics games is Louis’ favourite sporting highlight of the year so far. Coming from a considerable way behind the leader to win the race, showing his monumental desire and work ethic to overcome the odds and win the race. https://youtu.be/itS-PXapoYQ?si=X06-Vm-bg1Ap-lxA&t=9
Career Ambition: Louis has ambitions of being a reporter in the world of football, hopefully working for Brighton Hove and Albion, Louis says he would snatch at the opportunity to be presenting the infamous deadline day live show.
Role Model in Sport Media: Charlie Parker-Turner, a sports journalist for the Mirror, formerly working with the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.
Name: Annabel Bassett
No. 1 Sport: Annabel’s favourite sport is football and she supports Manchester City. Her current favourite player is Kevin De Bruyne and her all-time favourite player is Sergio Aguero. She is a dedicated fan who has been to many matches even though she does not live in Manchester. She has been supporting them since 2018, becoming a fan of the sport after watching the world cup. After they beat Newcastle 2-1 in September of the same year.
No. 2 Sport: Annabel’s second favourite sport is Formula One, she supports Mercedes and her favourite driver is Lewis Hamilton.
Favourite Sporting Memory: Annabel’s favourite sporting memory is winning a netball match at school in year 11, she played as a Goal Attack.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: When City beat United on penalties in the Community Shield, because United had already beaten City in the FA Cup final that season. It was City’s first Community Shield win since 2019.
Career Ambition (Specify Publication and Role): Annabel wants to work for the BBC as a football journalist, preferably as a writer.
Role Model in Sport Media: Phil McNulty, BBC sport’s chief football writer since 2000.
Name: Jacob Palladino
No. 1 Sport: Mainly interested in football and mainly follows the teams Brighton and Lewes due to family connections and location. Jacob has had a Brighton season ticket since 2014. His favourite Brighton players are Joao Pedro and Kaoru Mitoma due to them helping Brighton achieve European Football for the first time in their 122-year history.
No. 2 Sport: Jacob’s secondary sport is tennis, as he enjoyed playing it growing up and is trying to take more of an interest into the sport now in order to be a more versatile journalist. His current favourite tennis player is Emma Raducanu due to her rise to the top and great backstory to success.
Favourite Sporting Memory: When in Year 6 at age 11, from centre back Jacob scored a “bullet header” match winner for his school team in a cup final.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: His favourite sporting highlight of 2024 was Alex Yee’s historic Triathlon comeback in the 2024 Olympic Games, where he remarkably won with a last minute sprint to the finish line against the odds. With a time of 1 hour 48 minutes 21 seconds, the 26-year-old Brit contributed 1 out of 14 Great British gold medals in Paris.
Career Ambition: He specifically would like to write for the Guardian due to the quality of their work as well as their morals and reliability. He would like to expand his writing further than just football which is the key reason why he is trying to take a further interest into tennis and other sports such as athletics.
Role Model in Sport Media: His role model in sports media is David Ornstein due to his reliability, and speed at which he reports key football news across Europe. His achievable route to success through a Sports Journalism course at Bournemouth University also makes him a better role model.
Name: Christian Aris
No. 1 Sport: Football, Tottenham Hotspur fan
No. 2 Sport: Formula One
Favourite Sporting Memory: Winning the county cup final for Braintree Town FC U14s side 2-1, due to his heroic goal line clearance whilst the score remained level, ultimately proving crucial towards his side clinching the victory.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 demolition of Manchester United. Chris’ personal favourite moment from this game was Micky Van De Ven’s early assist to tea up Brennan Johnson at the back post, a monstrous run from the defender through the heart of the Red Devils, leaving five players for dead and getting the visitors off to a perfect start.
Career Ambition: Chris’ end goal would be either to become a sports editor for the BBC, or a football commentator for either Sky Sports or TNT Sports, ultimately becoming a respected name in the sports media industry.
Role Model in Sport Media: Chris has two role models in sport media, for two very different reasons. As an aspiring football commentator, Chris admires world-renowned commentator Peter Drury for his gifted wordplay and ability to improvise no matter the situation, improving his and many other listeners experience whilst tuning into football games. However, Chris also holds a soft sport and appreciates Martin Tyler’s legacy as a football commentator, growing up listening to him commentate almost every Sunday afternoon and resonating with his commanding voice and iconic reactions, hoping to one day replicate the memories Martin left for him, and inspire a young audience himself.
Name: Reece Morley
No. 1 Sport: Football. His team is Crawley Town
No. 2 Sport: Boxing
Favourite Sporting Memory: When he scored his first goal of youth football
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Watching his beloved Crawley Town get promoted to league one which is the highest they have been since 2011
Career Ambition: His career ambition is to work in the press and interview people, his favourite person to interview would be Pep Guardiola as his resume speaks for itself, total domination in every league that he has gone to and multiple tournaments won.
Role Model in Sport Media: Fabrizio Romano, and this is because Fabrizio publishes his stories within seconds after they have broke, and often he is the one that breaks the stories, he also works around the clock during the transfer windows
Name: Robbie Dalrymple.
No. 1 Sport: Tennis: Favourite player is Carlos Alcaraz but also likes Andy Murray.
No. 2 Sport: Football, in particular supporting his favourite team Arsenal.
Favourite Sporting Memory: The moment that he broke the Norfolk Relay Record in Year 6.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Ollie Watkins goal in the semi-final match against the Netherlands in the UEFA Euros.
Career Ambition: Sports interviewer
Role Model in Sport Media: Peter Drury
Name: Luke Hawkins
No. 1 Sport: Football, supports Tottenham Hotspur because he’s from Enfield where the clubs training ground is located.
No. 2 Sport: Darts. His favourite player is Stephen Bunting and enjoys watching his throw, karaoke moments, and winning the darts masters.
Favourite Sporting Memory: When he scored from the halfway line in a Saturday league football match when he was younger. He experienced feelings of shock and high adrenaline levels when the ball miraculously floated into the back of the net.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Watching Stephen Bunting win the Masters this year as he felt the moment was iconic whilst watching it with his mates.
Career Ambition: To be a sports journalist in the darts industry as he is keen to interview the high-profile athletes like Bunting, Luke Littler, and Micheal van Gerwen.
Role Model in Sport Media: His favourite role model in sports media is Martin Tyler because of the iconic Aguero goal for Manchester City that won them the Premier League.
Name: Ben Thomson
No. 1 Sport: Ben is a West Ham United fan as his dad also supported them. His first game was a 2015 pre season friendly against Werder Bremen. His favourite player growing up was Diafra Sakho and has been in possession of a season ticket on and off since the 2017/18 Premier League season.
No. 2 Sport: Ben has an interest in Basketball as he used to play it during secondary school, but wants to take a more invested interest in Tennis during his time at UOB
Favourite Sporting Memory: Ben’s favourite sporting memory came down to two West Ham entries. One being the 2022 Europa League round of 16 game vs Sevilla, where Andriy Yarmolenko scored in a 2-0 victory for the Irons, or West Ham’s Europa Conference League Final triumph vs Fiorentina in 2023.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: The 5-0 Europa League Round of 16 victory vs Freiburg, in Which Mohamed Kudus scored a solo goal from his own half
Career Ambition: Bens’s ambition is to go into the sporting world as a writer, preferably to be in the press box writing match reports on events he attends.
Role Model in Sport Media: Bens’s role model is David Ornstein due to his reliable, fast and straight to the point reporting.
Name: Sean-Nicholas Anyanwu
No. 1 Sport: Sean’s number one sport is Football. He is an Arsenal supporter.
No. 2 Sport: Sean’s second favourite sport is Tennis, with his favourite player being Holger Rune.
Favourite Sporting Memory: During year seven, Sean scored a hat-trick for his school team, Christ’s Hospital, against Warden Park Academy. One of the goals came from the half-way line.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Although not in 2024, Seans’s favourite sporting moment of the last year came on the 8th of October 2023, as Gabriel Martinelli’s late goal handed Arsenal a 1-0 win over title challengers Manchester City.
Career Ambition: Sean looks to become a sports journalist and writer off the back of his degree course.
Role Model in Sport Media: Fabrizio Romano is Sean’s largest role model in the industry.
Name: Dan Kent
No. 1 Sport: Dan is an avid boxing fan, and has been watching since he was young, starting training when he was 17.
No. 2 Sport: Dan’s second sport is horse racing, for which his father introduced him to. Dan has history in the industry, working as a stun hand in the area where he grew up.
Favourite Sporting Memory: When he participated in a table tennis tournament in Lancing, West Sussex, and Dan took home the victory in the doubles tournament when he was just 13.
Favourite Sporting Highlight of 2024: Attending the Misfits Prime Card 10, which took place in 2023. While not in 2024 directly, Dan’s coverage of the event, for which he interviewed several of the influencers involved, continued into the start of this year.
Career Ambition: He aspires to become a podcaster and commentator in boxing, attending events such as Dubois vs Joshua, and conducting interviews with others in the fighting space.
Role Model in Sport Media: Dan’s role model is derived from the career path that he wants to pursue. As an aspiring interviewer and podcaster, he is inspired by the journey of True Geordie, from a hard worker in the North, to interviewing the best of the best in the boxing world (Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua), and attending events under his own banner of The Pain Game.
