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.

This time last year – 12 March, 2020, to be precise - Georgia Griffiths ran 2:01.43 for 800 metres to beat national record holder Catriona Bisset, 2:01.54, by less than a step, with Linden Hall a further step back in third in 2:01.73. Madeleine Murray and Gigi Maccagnini were a...
World cross-country 1981-85: amid extraordinary scenes in Madrid, Robert de Castella takes Australia into the individual top-10. A year out from Bathurst 2021, Len Johnson continues his look at Australia in the world cross-country championships. The men’s race at the 1981 world cross-country championships in Madrid finished amid extraordinary scenes as...
No such difficulty in nominating a favourite performance of the week. That would have to be Jeff Riseley’s 1:45.34 800 victory in the Citta di Conegliano meeting in Italy. Many things you could say here – just off the plane, ran down Algeria’s Mohamed Belbachir up the final straight, missed the Olympic auto standard by a mere 0.14 seconds. Mostly, however, it was a performance to make you smile.
Is it just me or is Cam Myers channelling Herb Elliott
The hands of time keep ticking at their backs: A Column By Len Johnson Among a slew of recent interviews with Usain Bolt one revelatory comment leapt out. Paraphrasing here, but Bolt acknowledged there had been a moment in training this year when he wondered why he was still doing it,...
We’re beginning this look at 2023 with the world cross-country because . . . well. Because it is the world cross-country, it was being staged in Australia and it is the biggest international event staged here since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games (due respect to the 2001 IAAF Grand Prix final and the Melbourne 2006 and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Catriona Bisset has broken the Australian record for 800 metres. On Sunday, 21 July, at the Muller Games Diamond League in London’s Olympic stadium (and West Ham United’s home ground), Bisset finished second to Lynsey Sharp in one minute 58.78 seconds, slicing 0.22 off Charlene Rendina’s long-standing national record. Had this...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Funny race the marathon. Last Sunday in London, the British capital’s warmest (I would say hottest, but London doesn’t really do heat) London marathon day ever, Mary Keitany covered the 42.195 kilometres from Greenwich to the finish near Buckingham Palace entirely on her...
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Jessica Hull was pretty excited about smashing the Australian 1500 metres record at the Golden Gala Diamond League meeting in Florence last week. So she should be, too. Hull’s performance continued the rich vein of form she has been in to date in 2023. A bronze medal in the mixed...