A Column By Len Johnson

Len Johnson wrote for The Melbourne Age as an athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games.

He has been the long-time lead columnist on RT and is one of the world’s most respected athletic writers.

He is also a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) and trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella among other running legends. He is the author of The Landy Era.

Brady chats with Runner’s Tribe columnist, journalist and author Len Johnson about his time in running and how he got into it via footy. Len shares with Brady how he made the transition from the 400m to marathon running via amateur footy, and the factors and series of events that lead to running his personal best of 2:19:32 at Fukuoka.
Zatopek week 2019 was highlighted by two significant events. First was the death of Peter Snell just a few days before the race; second, the win in national record time of Stewart McSweyn in the fifty-ninth running of the men’s 10,000 metres. It would be drawing too long a bow...
It was the dust what done it. In Eugene for a few days at the world championships. Arriving in time to just miss Eleanor Patterson’s amazing win in the high jump. But I did get to Pre’s Trail. The wood bark surfaced track around the parklands of Eugene named after its...
How do you set an Australian record when 15 athletes – yourself, and the previous record-holder, included – have a superior legal performance. Simple, as it turns out. You just put a timer at the 100-yard point of a 100 metres race. That’s what happened in the New South Wales state...
If, like me, you take a passing interest in the NCAA cross-country championships, it may start and finish with Morgan McDonald’s victory in November 2018. Or maybe you have firm memories of Pat Tiernan’s win in 2016.
Well, Sunday 4 December 2022, was quite the day in Australian marathon history, wasn’t it? It’s not every day the Australian marathon record gets taken down. And it’s a very rare day indeed – unique, in fact – when both men’s and women’s records fall on the same day. But that’s...
Prior to the World Cross Country Championship in Bathurst, RT will unveil a comprehensive, 10-part series, composed by Len Johnson, that delves into the historical narrative of Australia’s participation in World XC. Part 5 of 10 – Written by Len Johnson Continuing my meandering paper chase through our world cross-country history,...
Josh Kerr eclipsed Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the 1500 metres with a stunning run on day five in Budapest.
By Len Johnson The years 2020 and 2021 have successively been “a year like no other” (even if 2021 seemed depressingly like 2020). I don’t know about a year like no other, but when it comes to Australia and the Track & Field News annual rankings, 2021 was certainly a year...
Muddy Waters | A Column By Len Johnson Sometimes when you stir up the water you end up with a nice clear solution. Other times, muddy water just gets muddier. Six months of marathons has delivered what appears to be an obvious selection of the three women to represent Australia in...
                     

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022