A Column By Len Johnson

Len Johnson wrote for The Melbourne Age as an athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games.

He has been the long-time lead columnist on RT and is one of the world’s most respected athletic writers.

He is also a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) and trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella among other running legends. He is the author of The Landy Era.

Josh Kerr eclipsed Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the 1500 metres with a stunning run on day five in Budapest.
Well, there you go. Just a couple of days before the Diamond League final in Eugene this weekend DL organisers announced a new system of wildcard entries.Seemingly moments later again, out come the entries. Guess what? A number of US athletes who have shown scant interest in the diamond league all year long are suddenly in the fields for the final, that’s what. The most notable? Athing Mu in the 800 metres.
Athletics can be one of the most democratic of sports, accessible to both the fastest, highest and strongest and the slowest, lowest and puniest. Such is true of most sports, of course. Tennis is played both at the sublime Federer-Nadal-Williams level and as hit-and-giggle social doubles. Golf is Tiger Woods,...
A column by Len Johnson (reporting from Doha) - Runner's Tribe There is no rest day in the world championships program. Hasn’t been for a while now. For long periods, however, day six seemed intent on being as restful as possible. Oh, there were sparks – a couple of quite physical...
A column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe  Here’s a multiple-choice question: It’s 3am; the next-door neighbour’s party is in full swing, the music boring its way into your brain. Do you: (a) bury your head deeper into the pillows; (b) ask him to turn the music off; or, (c) ask...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Two things surprised me at my first Commonwealth Games as a journalist in Auckland in 1990. The first, Andrew Lloyd’s victory in an amazing 5000 metres race, still surprises me to this day. I don’t know if ‘Lloydie’ still sometimes wonders if it...
Catriona Bisset made her intentions plain in the final of the 800 metres at the Australian championships. Competing in her first national final, she grabbed the lead early and front-ran her way to her first national title. Bisset’s recent runs have mostly been like that. She ran from the front...
We need to talk about drugs: A Column By Len Johnson We need to talk about drugs, performance-enhancing drugs. Sorry if you think there has already been enough discussion on the matter, but we need to talk some more. Everyone from Lord Coe to Vladimir Putin – and that encompasses a...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe There were five gold medals awarded on the fourth day of the world championships and each of them was special in its own way. There was the emotion of Daniel Stahl’s gold medal in the discus after several years of world-leading throws coupled...
Is it just me, or is the pace of indoor record breaking picking up. Jakob Ingebrigtsen took almost half-a-second off the men’s world indoor record in Lievin, France on Thursday night, reducing it to 3:30.60, a time which is still extremely handy outdoors. But we’re not talking world records here,...
                   

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022