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.

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...
Did ye get healed? A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Nitro Athletics has been and gone. It seems to have had an overwhelmingly positive reception – 1.4-million viewers Australia-wide on the first of three nights on free-to-air television, Melbourne’s boutique lakeside Stadium jammed to its 9000-ish capacity for the...
A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe The Wages of Fear is a 1953 movie about four men who are asked to transport a dangerous cargo of nitroglycerine. The plot of the Franco-Italian, noir-nero drama is simple: four men, broke and stranded in a South American oil town, are contracted...
‘Twas the night before Nitro, when all through the house . . . ‘, well, actually, all through most athletics houses people were tossing and turning, sleeping fitfully, if at all, hoping Nitro Athletics would be a Boltaway success. A lot is riding on Nitro. It is kicking goals, though...
Signifying What, Exactly? A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Never hold an inquiry unless you already know the outcome, goes a wise old political maxim. It’s a saying I’ve cited before, but as it is a few years since its last mention I refer to it again. Political inquiries have 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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
                   

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022