If I had to pick one abiding memory of the third world championships in Tokyo in 1991 it would be the humidity which descended on your shoulders like a heavy cloak the moment you stepped outside.
Women didn’t get to make distance running history. Paternalistic notions about the impact of physical stress on women which, in truth, were too often misogyny disguised as medical science, saw to that.
Pheidippedes hijacked the whole marathon myth thing with his “rejoice, we have won,” message to Athens, collapse and...
So, what’s the deal with the 800 metres?
No, not channelling Seinfeld, just wondering about the current state of Australian 800-meter running.
To some extent, a large extent, it’s the same deal as always. Gun goes BANG! Runners go FAST! Winner is the one who slows up the least* as everyone...
You don’t often get the best seat in the house to watch the shot put. Usually, it’s one of the worst, regardless of where you’re seated.
The throwing circle is normally at one end of the oval or the other. Often, it’s obscured by the infrastructure for other field events:...
A column by Len Johnson
Neil Robbins knew Ron Clarke well enough to call him ‘Fat’, Clarke’s boyhood family nickname. He was a teammate of John Landy and Marjorie Jackson; a clubmate of Les Perry, Geoff Warren and Dave Stephens, ‘the Flying Milko’. He trained with Merv Lincoln and many...
When did Australia first compete in the world cross-country championships.
If you answered: “Rabat, 1975,” you’d be right. Sort of. Largely. But you’d also be wrong. Sort of. Technically, but not over-technically.
Five years before our intrepid men and women trekked to Morocco, two Australians had already competed in a ‘world’...
If McLaughlin-Levrone goes on to retain her Olympic title in Paris and improves her world record in doing so, she will complete a hat-trick of double world record victories in US Trials and global championship races. Who would be game to say she will not? Certainly, I’m not about to.
Traveling in a fried-out Kombi
On a hippie trail, head full of zombie
- Down Under, Men at Work, 1981
What do you do when you're trekking around and in need of transport?
Well, if it’s the 1970s and you are Australians in Europe, you get yourself a Kombi van. Many young Aussies...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
There were five gold medals awarded on the fourth day of the world championships and each of them was special in its own way.
There was the emotion of Daniel Stahl’s gold medal in the discus after several years of world-leading throws coupled...
If you asked an Australian track and field fan to nominate the three best multi-day meetings held in this country, I guess there would be near-unanimous agreement on the top two – the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games and Sydney 2000.
