Seat by the water-jump
Back in the good old days of Melbourne interclub, when every distance runner had to compete in the steeple for club points, you could always find the ghoulish type of spectator hanging around the water-jump.
Given the rudimentary nature of most steeplers’ hurdling technique, falls at the...
Closing the door after bolt has bolted | A Column By Len Johnson
Usain Bolt didn’t need a third relay gold medal to confirm his place among the Olympic immortals, but getting one ensured he would not end on an anti-climactic note.
Bolt took the baton from Nickel Ashmeade for the...
We need to talk about drugs: A Column By Len Johnson
We need to talk about drugs, performance-enhancing drugs. Sorry if you think there has already been enough discussion on the matter, but we need to talk some more.
Everyone from Lord Coe to Vladimir Putin – and that encompasses a...
A Column By Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
Rankings ‘bang’ pre-empts Nitro
I’m as gung-ho for Nitro as the next bro’, but we should not become so bedazzled by the Big Bang Theory of Australian athletics as to ignore minor, but just as spectacular, explosions along the way.
Reference the annual merit...
Tiernan echoes of Melbourne ‘56
A Column By Len Johnson
It might be drawing a long bow, but there’s nothing wrong with drawing long bows: when Patrick Tiernan became NCAA cross-country champion last weekend I saw a link going back to the Melbourne Olympic Games 60 years earlier.
How so? Well, Tiernan...
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...
A Column By Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
Dipping a foot in the water
My running shoes are drying out as I write from Falls Creek.
Haven’t had to do that for a few years. The annual Christmas-New Year trek to the Bogong High Plains has been marked by fine, dry and...
The day I beat Yifter
A Column By Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
The time I beat Miruts Yifter I wasn’t foolish enough to let it come down to a kick. I passed him mid-race.
He was walking, which detracts, but only a little, from the fact that I can boast an...
Kenenisa Bekele leaves us wondering as the marathon humbles one of its most prestigious challengers.
A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Say what you like about Kenenisa Bekele, but the man sometimes known as ‘King Kenny’ is never boring.
Bekele’s latest interesting decision saw him jump into the Dubai marathon,...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Have we got a dog in the fight is the basic question self-interest asks itself whenever a dispute flares.
In other words, have we got an interest beyond the fact that many humans are drawn towards conflict – provided they are a safe non-participant. As many...
