A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Ladies and Gentleman, we present for your entertainment a battle for one of the heavyweight titles of athletics – the world cross-country championships.
In the red corner, the defending champion, a course over 10 kilometers, multiple laps over a flat (and maybe a...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
When Nike announced recently that its ‘window’ for the attempt to run the first sub-two hour marathon was 5-7 May, an intriguing possibility was raised.
The date dead-centre in the window, 6 May, is the sixty-third anniversary of the breaking of another famous...
A Column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Cross-country: something for everybody. Just step outside and run.
Invented by cave-dwellers fleeing mastodons, cross-country simply involves running as fast as you can – faster than a pre-historic predator, in any case – for as long as you can, over whatever terrain confronts...
A Column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Joseph Heller’s incomparable anti-war novel, Catch-22, is populated by a collection of bizarre characters, from the squadron commander, Major Major, to minor minor players.
Take Dunbar, who decided to live as long as possible by making time pass as slowly as possible. Dunbar...
That sinking feeling - Len Johnson Reporting from London - Runner's Tribe
Pink Floyd famously imagined an elephant flying over Battersea Power Station.
I fancied I saw a kitchen sink on the first night of the world championships, flying over Queen Elizabeth Park. They threw everything but the kitchen sink at...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
Usain Bolt finished his last individual championship race with a touch of class, warmly embracing the winner, Justin Gatlin, and clapping him heartily on the back.
It’s a pity spectators in the London Olympic stadium didn’t show the same amount of...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
The British are proud of their ability to deliver an ‘event’. London 2012 was the best Olympics ever. The pageantry of the Changing of the Guard. And so forth, and so on - and on, and on.
To a large extent,...
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...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
Another night in the London Olympic Stadium thin on finals turned out to be thick on drama as Conselsus Kiruto maintained Kenyan honour in one of the events where traditional hegemony was under challenge only to lose another in which...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
Day six at the world championships and it was one of those this way, thataway, haven’t we been here before scenarios so beloved of film directors. Sliding doors, chances taken, chances missed – that sort of thing.
One place we definitely...
