Guardian Sport won two top prizes at the prestigious Sports Journalists’ Association’s awards evening on Monday.

The Guardian won sports publisher of the year at the SJA British Sports Journalism Awards night while Jonathan Liew was named columnist of the year for the fifth time in eight years, as well as winning bronze in the football journalist of the year category. Suzanne Wrack won bronze in the women’s football journalist of the year and Andy Bull won bronze in the sports feature writer of the year (long form) category.

When explaining their reasons for giving the Guardian the top award, the SJA judges described the Guardian’s coverage as “a selection box of delights, consistently catering for many tastes”.

The Guardian’s head of sport, Will Woodward, said: It’s an exciting time to be working at the Guardian,” while a delighted Liew said: “I wasn’t expecting to win this one, I respect the people on the shortlist so this one means a lot.”

For the first time in the event’s history, the London Palladium was the venue, with Jim White, Reshmin Chowdhury, Bela Shah and Joel Beya sharing host duties.