Written by Michael Beisty
‘The less we interfere with the natural movements of our feet, the better we are going to perform, so shoes have to be avoided which promise to cushion and control what fits inside them in accordance with what the designers think should happen.’ (Arthur Lydiard, 2000)1
‘It...
Well, that was quite the boilover, wasn’t it?
Faith Kipyegon, the best female 1500 metres/miler ever – the best ever full stop, if we go by her unmatched three Olympic gold medals in a row, backed by all the considerable expertise Nike can bring, makes an attack on the four-minute...
Written by Michael Beisty
Danny Boltz’s relationship with distance running is complex. He was a kid of prodigious talent who built his early reputation on fun runs, eventually to become a dual international and Olympian. However, his journey was bitter sweet. Hampered by the vagaries of the Australian marathon selection...
John Farrington, distance runner, 2 July 1944 to 15 June 2025
Followers of Australian distance running would have few problems naming the highest achievers in the men’s marathon. World champion Rob de Castella. World record holder Derek Clayton. Commonwealth Games champion Steve Moneghetti. Some may add contemporary national record breakers...
One of the rites of passage for any child born in Melbourne is the trip to see the Christmas display in the windows of the Myer department store.
Most Melburnians refer to the shop as Myer’s, the colloquial nickname bestowed upon the business founded by Sidney Myer and bis brother...
When Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954 his friend and supporter Norris McWhirter stretched the announcement out almost beyond breaking point, proclaiming successively Bannister had run a meeting and track record and “subject to ratification,” an English native, British national, all-comers, European, British Empire...
One of the members of a chat group your writer frequents re-posts a helpful table each week detailing the latest performances of Australian athletes.
Along with the individual performances, the table lists how the result impacts the athlete’s position on the World Athletics rankings. As you may remember, the world...
John Landy once wrote a report for Australian Athletics which someone within the governing body – I can’t believe it was John’s idea – released under the title: ‘Change or Die’.
As I can’t resist the urge to point out every time I have cited that report over the years,...
On hearing of the death of Lady Macbeth and faced with his own impending overthrow, Shakespeare’s Macbeth tries to make sense of it all. Life, he concludes, is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Could have been talking about the World Relays.
In the...
Way back in 1972, when Frank Shorter was just a crazy young kid with a dream of winning the Olympic marathon and China was just beginning to emerge onto the international stage after decades of isolation, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was asked about the impact of the French Revolution.
“Too...
