Given the painfully slow historic process of admitting that women were capable of running long distances, would it surprise you to learn that women led the adoption of annual Australian cross-country championships.
Yes, it would, I’m presuming you replied. It certainly came as a shock to me. Yet, in 1960,...
By Len Johnson reporting from the Gold Coast
Standing on the runway for her last throw of the Commonwealth Games javelin competition at Carrara Stadium on Wednesday night, Kathryn Mitchell dissolved into tears.
These were tears of joy, however, not those born of the frustration at having to wait so long...
There comes a time when you think you have seen everything, read everything and heard everything about the marathon.
As is usually the case when you fall into such a line of thinking, it turns out that time is never. The thing I never thought I’d hear about the marathon...
Not much interrupts the runner’s lifestyle at Falls Creek. It is pretty much run, rest, eat, repeat from day one of stay to departure. Nirvana for aspiring distance champions – and aren’t or weren’t we all, aspiring that is – boring as bat s**t for anyone else.
New Year’s Eve...
It won’t be easy making the team to represent Australia in the men’s middle-distance events at the World U20 championships in Lima, Peru later this year.
Right now – 27 November, as this is written – it is exactly 64 years past the mid-point of the athletics’ program at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games.
Sixty-four is not an anniversary we usually celebrate, I’ll grant you, but consider two points of mitigation in that regard. Firstly, the four-year Olympic cycle does not lend itself to the five-year rhythm of most anniversary celebrations: the two waves only coincide once every 20 years, which is way too long between drinks.
It was once said of the architect Christopher Wren, “if you seek his monument, look around.” Wren’s monuments were the buildings he designed.
Similarly, you could say of Bill Baillie, who died on Christmas Day, aged 84, “if you want to know what sort of runner he was, ask around.”
Baillie...
On 4 January, 1981, I ran to the summit of Mt Bogong.
Having got to the top once, it took almost 38 years to the day to do it again, this time walking, on 30 December, 2018. Back to Mt Bogong, certainly; but certainly not back-to-back Mt Bogongs.
The drive from...
A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
One fan's race is another fan's procession
Lots of people characterised the Rio men’s Olympic 1500 metres final as “boring”. All I can say is that for a boring race it continues to generate plenty of passionate discussion.
The latest to-and-fro I’ve seen on...
No 10,000m at Pre', plus Rio medals returned.
A column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
No Mo' Ten
Pardon me. The realisation hit late. It is the eve of the Prefontaine Classic and I have just noticed there is no 10,000.
It may not have the storied history of our own Zatopek...
