A Column By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Being a selector is often a thankless task – literally, in the sense that not many of those selected ever think to say ‘thank you’, and, figuratively, in the sense that it is bloody hard work.
So perhaps it is fitting that the...
Written by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come,” Victor Hugo is reputed to once have said.
Like many such ‘quotes’, this may not be a precise rendition of the French poet and novelist’s words, merely the most common paraphrase. Hugo’s observation...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
One of the beneficiaries of the decision to compete in Moscow was Rob de Castella, who made his first of four Olympic teams in the marathon.
‘Deek’ finished tenth in the marathon in Moscow, his first experience of the surging sort of running required to win...
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...
