Martha joins from the Daily Mail where she was most recently athletics correspondent and sportswriter. Since joining in 2011, Kelner has specialised in investigations and sports news and played an integral role in the Mail’s coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, and London 2012. In 2013, Kelner was the first journalist to uncover the Russian doping scandal, triggering an investigation in the UK and Russia which revealed state-controlled doping and the resultant cover up. She was highly commended at this year’s Press Awards for a series of exclusives about allegations of discrimination in cycling which rocked the sporting world. Kelner is a former winner of the SJA’s Young Sport Journalist award and has been nominated for Young Journalist at the Press Awards, as well as numerous SJA awards.
Martha said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be joining the Guardian and am relishing the prospect of working with an editor in Katharine Viner and head of sport in Owen Gibson who I admire enormously. The Guardian is clearly one of the best sport sections around with an incredible team of reporters and writers and I’m very excited about being a part of that.”
Owen Gibson, head of sport, Guardian News & Media said: “Martha is a talented journalist who has already broken some of the biggest stories in sport over recent years. I’m thrilled that she will be bringing her tenacity and expertise to the Guardian’s award winning sports desk.”
