If I’m recalling my year 12 physics correctly – which may be a risky proposition – two equal waves meeting as they cross a pond will cancel each other out at one point and perfectly reinforce each other at some other point. Choose the pinnacle of running excellence –...
Some blokes take the conventional path to number one in Track & Field News’s prestigious annual rankings.
For over 70 years now the US magazine self-styled, and rightly known as, The Bible of the Sport has assessed athletes against three criteria – honours won; win-loss record; and, sequence of marks...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
You know the feeling. Many Australians will be familiar with it.
You go away for a Gold Coast holiday, lie on the beach, soak up the sun, feel good about yourself and life in general; then, it’s back to grey skies and wintry weather. Sometime it...
Runner's Tribe
It is a good time to be an emerging high jumper, an even better time to be Brandon Starc.
With the world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim sidelined by injury, and the handful of other men who have recently challenged 2.40 metres, and beyond, variously sidelined or not jumping similar...
Jared Tallent’s retirement leaves Australia one champion short in the race walking department. Four Olympic medals – one gold, two silver and one bronze – over three Olympic Games eloquently attest to that.
Coincidentally, Melbourne Track Classic, formerly Australia’s most prestigious invitational track and field meeting but now, in this...
A disturbing image it is, though I have no personal knowledge I hasten to add. But let me take you back to those early 20th century days. The Hobart Harriers and New Town Harriers had just been formed in the capital. Launceston Harriers quickly followed an early example of anything that happens in the south of Tasmania is quickly replicated in the north. And vice versa.
nne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, launched herself into the Seine this week. Not in response to a suggestion from an aggrieved citoyen or citoyenne that she should go and do so, but to celebrate the fulfilment of a pledge that the French capital’s iconic waterway would be ready to play its part in the Paris24 opening ceremony and as the venue for the Olympic triathlon swim legs and the marathon swim.
Looking back at the Tokyo 1991 world championships a couple of years ago, I wrote that If I had to pick one abiding memory it would be the humidity which descended on your shoulders like a heavy cloak the moment you stepped outside.
As we return to Tokyo 34 years...
A column by Len Johnson - 23/07/21
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games haven’t even started and Australia is dominating.
Some hours before the Opening Ceremony, as this is written, Australia is already up and about. In women’s football, goals to Tameka Yallop and the talismanic Sam Kerr took the Matildas to...
When a runner makes a breakaway move in a marathon, one of the psychological advantages they seek is to disappear. To build enough of a lead that whenever the road crests a hill, turns a corner or rounds a blind bend, the leader cannot be seen by the pursuers....












