Take a deep breath | A Column by Len Johnson
Take a deep breath. Contain your excitement. It is now only a few more sleeps before the Olympic Games open in Rio de Janeiro on 5 August.
The ‘take a deep breath’ advice is actually a little belated, given the extent...
We need to talk about drugs: A Column By Len Johnson
We need to talk about drugs, performance-enhancing drugs. Sorry if you think there has already been enough discussion on the matter, but we need to talk some more.
Everyone from Lord Coe to Vladimir Putin – and that encompasses a...
The Commercial Hotel in Kerang, a rural town in Victoria’s Mallee region, is as unlikely a site for a High-Performance Training Centre as you could find. Yet it may have a claim to being Australia’s first such facility.
In October, 2018, Jack Rayner hit a sweet spot.
Running in the inaugural Commonwealth half-marathon championships (has there been another ne: I’m not sure), Rayner went boldly with the pace set by a pack of Ugandan and Kenyan runners all bringing much more impressive personal bests to the starting line than his modest 63:19.
Brett Robinson, Jessica Hull and Stewart McSweyn made it a good week for Australian distance running this week, but it’s the sometimes under-rated Robinson who should be singled out.
It was hard not to notice Hull and McSweyn, who did their magic at the Melbourne Track Classic. The meeting may...
As we travelled to Falls Creek for the forty-somethingth year in a row I had one of those existential-type moments. Had the journey up to Victoria’s Bogong High Plains become better than the destination.
Way back in 1972, when Frank Shorter was just a crazy young kid with a dream of winning the Olympic marathon and China was just beginning to emerge onto the international stage after decades of isolation, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai was asked about the impact of the French Revolution.
“Too...
A look at the latest breaking 2 project.
When it comes to second chances, you can pick your won cliché. Some old sayings take the glass-half-full perspective; others look on the gloomier, glass-half-empty side.
“A soufflé doesn’t rise twice,” former Australian prime minister Paul Keating observed scathingly of a political opponent...
Thirty-six years after Dave Smith and Tim Erickson should have been Olympic teammates, their sons Dane Bird-Smith and Chris Erickson will be.
Bird-Smith and Chris Erickson have long since joined their fathers in representing their country in international competition, but Rio 2016 will mark their first appearance as Olympic teammates.
Bird-Smith,...
Like many other fans, I’m excited about the imminent world cross-country championships. Not least, because I’m going to be there.
From the outset, the Danish city of Aarhus has promised us something special, its defining aspect the most exciting roof-top chase since Michael Caine and his crew evaded the chasing...
