By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Herb Elliott didn’t lose too often.
Never, in his junior and senior career over his specialty, 1500 metres and the mile. There might have been a mile in his schoolboy days at Perth’s Aquinas College he lost to a schoolmate three years his senior. But...
How do you set an Australian record when 15 athletes – yourself, and the previous record-holder, included – have a superior legal performance.
Simple, as it turns out. You just put a timer at the 100-yard point of a 100 metres race.
That’s what happened in the New South Wales state...
Prior to the World Cross Country Championship in Bathurst, RT will unveil a comprehensive, 10-part series, composed by Len Johnson, that delves into the historical narrative of Australia’s participation in World XC. To experience, exceptional performance in running, choose the best footwear for your runs like Tarkine Trail Devil shoes.
Part...
Zurich’s fabled Weltklasse meeting has often been dubbed “the Olympics in one day.”
It’s a fair call. Usually staged within a week of the conclusion of the year’s major championships – Olympic, world or European – Zurich re-packages the just concluded championship as three hours’ non-stop action. The champions can...
Having seen the last of ticketing stories – who knew there would be more wanting to go to the Games than there are tickets available; of confected uproar over accommodation (again, who knew?) and hospitality (ditto) price gouging; of panic over any number of remote possibilities – we stand just a couple of weeks away from the opening of competition. When what does happen swamps what might have happened in organisers’ worst nightmares.
Lasse Viren, the fabulous Finn who won consecutive Olympic track 5000/10,000 doubles – once suggested that elastic tapes must be used to measure the last three or four miles of the marathon.
If you asked an Australian track and field fan to nominate the three best multi-day meetings held in this country, I guess there would be near-unanimous agreement on the top two – the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games and Sydney 2000.
The long march to the Marcha | A Column By Len Johnson
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It took us a while to get to watch Jared Tallent in the 50k walk.
About a week, to be more precise. We set off for the Olympic walks course around noon on 12 August and we got there...
Len Johnson Reporting from the World Champs, London – Runner’s Tribe
Luke Mathews could scarcely have had a worse Rio Olympic experience last year than if he had decided to go out partying with the US swimmers.
Selected for the 800 metres after he had run David Rudisha close in Melbourne and...
Did you see that? (we didn’t) | A Column by Len Johnson
During my years as a full-time journalist, I worked many times with Roy Masters.
A senior sports journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, Roy had previously been an average country Rugby League player, a teacher and a successful NSW...
