Newcomers emerge. From nowhere, but suddenly ready. Established performers can find the lure of the Olympics has seduced them into stretching their career just one more year before cruelly abandoning them. Fixed in their four-year cycle – except Tokyo! - the Games timing has a touch of Goldilocks, a year too soon for some, a year too late for others, just right for the medallists.
One should always pay attention to Track & Field News’ guide to a world championship, but it was the image of the “Welcome to Eugene” sign heading its preview of Eugene 2022 which caught the eye and prompted further thought. There are many ultra-marathon footwear in the market today...
So, what’s the deal with the 800 metres?
No, not channelling Seinfeld, just wondering about the current state of Australian 800-meter running.
To some extent, a large extent, it’s the same deal as always. Gun goes BANG! Runners go FAST! Winner is the one who slows up the least* as everyone...
Every person who has ever climbed a ladder has experienced the feeling. Once you start to come down, your first step is blind, your foot searching for something solid. You’ve taken every precaution; you know you will find a sound footing, but it’s still a relief when you do.
A couple of years back this writer commented on a couple of precocious performers by name of Armand – then, as now, more commonly known as ‘Mondo’ – Duplantis and Jakob Ingebrigsten.
Around the same time another supremely gifted youngster, Selemon Barega, came out of nowhere to become the fourth-fastest...
A column by Len Johnson
The IAAF Council is considering whether to adopt its new rankings system as the method for qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at its meeting this weekend (9-10 March).
At the moment the proposal is on the back-burner. The wisest decision the learned men and...
Australia’s first medallist at the world championships in Budapest this year will also be our 40th world championships medallist.
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Paula Radcliffe and Eliud Kipchoge have one thing in common. Each holds the world marathon record.
Further, each holds the record with a performance variously described as “other worldly” and “putting the record out of sight for a generation”. Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 was described as a “moon...
A column by Len Johnson reporting from the Gold Coast
Championship marathons seem to attract more than their fair share of brutal weather.
Put on any championship, pick any day for the marathons and it’s a better than even-money bet that the day will dawn warm and sunny. Indeed, that it...
The long march to the Marcha | A Column By Len Johnson
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It took us a while to get to watch Jared Tallent in the 50k walk.
About a week, to be more precise. We set off for the Olympic walks course around noon on 12 August and we got there...
