A Column By Len Johnson
When David McNeill ran 27:45.01 in the Payton Jordan meeting in Stanford this May, his performance had a certain Dickensian element.
To cite the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities , it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The...
Japan’s Fukuoka marathon used to be the best non-championship marathon of the year.You knew when it would be run: the first Sunday in December each year. You knew who would be running: the best six international runners organisers could get on a ‘start at the top and keep going until six men have said ‘yes’’ basis; the best six Japanese runners (few of whom ever said ‘no’ to Japan’s most prestigious race); anyone else around the world who had bettered the 2:27 qualifying time and was willing to pay their own way.The Olympics were the only global championships back then, so most years Fukuoka might bring together the European and Commonwealth champions, the winners of traditional races like Boston and the English AAA championship and others burning with ambition. Before there was a world championships, the Fukuoka marathon was the next-best thing.
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
You know the feeling. Many Australians will be familiar with it.
You go away for a Gold Coast holiday, lie on the beach, soak up the sun, feel good about yourself and life in general; then, it’s back to grey skies and wintry weather. Sometime it...
Seems like only yesterday we were marking one year to go to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Now, in an Olympic version of Groundhog Day, here we are celebrating it all over again. It is one year to go to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Still.
In 12 months, 52 weeks,...
Don’t bring a knife to a gun-fight
By Len Johnson reporting from the Gold Coast
In the movie The Untouchables, the Sean Connery character offers the memorable line to one of his victims: “Never bring a knife to a gun-fight.”
It took a while for Kenya to cotton on to this logic,...
Published 12-09-2020
It’s 20 years to the day that the Olympic Games kicked off in Sydney. Or it will be on Tuesday, 15 September.
That’s if you’re reading this on 15 September, and you reckon the Olympic Games commence with the Opening Ceremony, which would seem to be the implication of...
The question can be asked of Sydney McLaughlin, whose deeds at the world championships in Eugene astounded us all. Her other-worldly world record of 50.68 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles final was the most stunning individual performance of a championships which saw two other world records – Mondo Duplantis’s 6.21 to win the pole vault gold medal and Tobi Amusan’s 12.12 in the 100 hurdles.
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
There were two gongs for athletics at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame dinner in Melbourne this week. Raelene Boyle was elevated to Legend of Australian Sport status and Steve Hooker was admitted to the Hall of Fame.
They don’t admit mugs to...
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...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
For the world championships, the penultimate day was Super Saturday, the departure of Usain Bolt from all competition and of Mo Farah from track racing.
In the end, each of these great champions was upstaged. Mo was beaten, as Bolt had...
