New competition for budding young sportswriters

A new competition has been established in commemoration of the former sports editor of the Daily Telegraph, David Welch, to seek out the finest young sportswriter in the country.

David Welch, who died in June 2011, edited the sports pages of the Daily Telegraph between 1985-2005 and was an inspirational editor who believed in the promotion of young talent. He nurtured the careers of many of Britain's greatest sportswriters from Paul Hayward and Henry Winter of The Telegraph to Sam Wallace (The Independent) and Martin Johnson (The Sunday Times). The competition is designed to continue in that great tradition, offering encouragement to ambitious young writers and an opportunity for the successful.

The competition is open to all students aged between 16-25 currently in full time education at school, college or university. All entrants must submit three pieces of writing no longer than 800 words each on the subject of sport. Submissions can take the form of columns, features and reportage.

Entries must be submitted by February 6th 2012 and will be judged by a panel of sports journalists. The top two nominees will be invited to the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards on 12th March 2012. The winner will have a submission published on-line on The Daily Telegraph website and will also be offered a week's unpaid work experience.

For details on how to enter, please visit http://www.davidwelchcompetition.co.uk/