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.

Monday – Fitzy’s Hut; Tuesday – fartlek; Wednesday – Spion Kopje; Thursday – trackwork; Friday – Tower Run; Saturday – Mt McKay; Sunday – Pretty Valley.
A Column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Crikey. No sooner do we write in defence of Matt Centrowitz’s tactics in the Rio Olympic men’s 1500 metres final than we get an Australian championships replete with races run on what we might now call the Centrowitz-Kipyegon model: slow as a...
https://youtu.be/ctWRhaUxzzY Class act rewarded | A Column By Len Johnson Cathy Freeman unzipped her body suit and sat down on the track. Sally Pearson let out a scream once her narrow victory had been confirmed. Nathan Deakes dissolved into tears of joy. Rob de Castella, so injury-proof he was nicknamed ‘The Tree’,...
By Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe – Len is RT’s lead columnist, a sub 2:20 marathoner, Author of ‘The Landy Era’ and a key writer for the IAAF, amongst other things… The Australian half-marathon championships at Maroochydore one weekend, the Australian cross-country championships at Maleny this weekend (25 August): it’s...
By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe I went bush walking this week. Nothing epic: a couple of nights’ camping in Victoria’s Grampians and walks to Mt Sturgeon and Mt Abrupt, and along the Wannon River to fill in the days. Until...
A (slightly) revisionist view of the London marathon. Kelvin Kiptum ran home in splendid isolation to win the London marathon, covering the second half of the race in 59:45 to miss Eliud Kipchoge’s world record by just 16 seconds. Unleash your full potential with Tarkine Goshawk shoes, where cutting-edge...
Remember when sport and politics didn’t mix (Yes: I know they always have, but let’s pretend the perfect world in which they don’t actually exists). Seeking some respite from the tedium of an Australian election campaign that has not yet left – and probably will not leave – the tit-for-tat...
A strange thing happened when Track & Field News published its annual rankings for 1990. The number one in the men’s 1500 metres had never ranked in the top-10 before. Even more strongly, neither had number two; nor, for that matter, had number three. Performance governs the rankings: Noureddine Morceli,...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Only one event has had its Gold Coast 2018 trial and already selectors and athletes are in a quandary. Actually, make that two quandaries if we count the news that Australia may be restricted to a quota of 73 athletes in the able-bodied...
Last week was a good week for remembering that sayings become clichés because there is more than an element of truth to them. First as we – we Victorians, especially – endure a winter without cross-country, suddenly, in the last week of July, cross-country was coming at us from all...
                   

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022