Readers of this column will know that I have never met a 10,000-metre race I did not like.
“What never,” you ask. “No; never,” I re-affirm stoutly.
“What never,” you repeat even more disbelievingly. “Well, hardly ever,” I reply, grudgingly giving an inch. To experience, exceptional performance in running, choose the...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
Note to future event organisers: when you’ve got a program which is fairly light on finals, make sure you finish off with a real barnburner.
London 2017 did just that on Monday. The night had just four finals, but it finished...
Signifying What, Exactly?
A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Never hold an inquiry unless you already know the outcome, goes a wise old political maxim.
It’s a saying I’ve cited before, but as it is a few years since its last mention I refer to it again.
Political inquiries have an...
Round about the time the coronavirus pandemic went truly global, and was seen to be ‘a thing’ which might adversely impact the Tokyo Olympic Games, a Japanese government minister lamented that the Games were afflicted with a 40-year-curse.
“It’s a problem that’s happened every 40 years – it’s the cursed...
Since assuming the leadership of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe has repeatedly championed the need for change.
By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
A few days into the world championships in London a friend commented: “Four days, full stadium every session, great competition. So how come all I’m hearing about athletics is negative.”
He was right to wonder. Those few days had brought some wonderful competition, all of...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Most years a runners’ panel is part of Falls Creek Running Week. It was again this year, featuring rising middle-distance star Georgia Griffith, Olympic and world championship distance representative Dave McNeill and London 2017 marathoner Brad Milosevic.
Chris Wardlaw was the MC. Inevitably,...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
For half-a-century, Ralph Doubell’s Australian record for 800 metres had defied all-comers. Now, with Joseph Deng running 1:44.21 in Monaco on Friday night, it is gone.
The king of Australian records is dead. Long live the king!
The queen – Charlene Rendina’s women’s record...
A Federation of Her Own | A Column By Len Johnson
The 1992 film, A League of Their Own, tells a fictionalised account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, formed during World War II when the men’s major leagues were facing temporary closure.
A League of Their Own? Decima...
It may be going a step too far to acclaim Magic Monday, day four of track and field competition at the Sydney Olympics, as perfect. Just as with records, one great day of athletics competition can eventually be surpassed by another. But it would be fair to say that anything better, even by the merest poofteenth, would have been perfect.
Topped by Cathy Freeman’s resounding victory in the 400 metres, a victory which, even if for a moment only, united a nation, reconciling Australia with a past it has all too often wished out of existence, the day’s nine finals generated wave after wave of emotion which, as they mutually reinforced each other, grew into a tsunami.
