WADA gets what it wants | A Column By Len Johnson
“Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets” went a song from the 1950s musical Damn Yankees and, judging by the outcome this week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, WADA is the new Lola.
A CAS panel upheld an appeal by the...
Who Wins Again? A Column By Len Johnson
One of the games I like to play as a major championships looms is to ponder which champions might repeat their victories.
The game takes on a heightened significance in Olympic years. No gold shines brighter than Olympic gold, despite the introduction of...
A column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
Could it be that the year’s best performance in the marathon came in the equivalent of a ‘beer mile’?
Well, it could just be. That’s if you’re prepared to accord Nike’s Breaking 2 project at least as much credibility as an event in...
A column by Len Johnson
As far as we know, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin didn’t care much for sport.
But the Russian revolutionary leader did know a thing or two about history (disclaimer: I don’t). And he once summed up history’s ebbs and flows with the observation: “There are decades in which...
Ah, Oslo! Remember those Scandinavia nights. Warm but rarely hot. Calm conditions. Great tradition of middle and long-distance track running.
Canberra delivers fast footwork | A Column By Len Johnson
A little bit of fancy footwork is always handy in Canberra, the nation’s political capital, where agility and nimbleness were highly prized long before the current incumbent moved into the prime ministerial office.
If the politicians weren’t admiring of the performances...
A Column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Joseph Heller’s incomparable anti-war novel, Catch-22, is populated by a collection of bizarre characters, from the squadron commander, Major Major, to minor minor players.
Take Dunbar, who decided to live as long as possible by making time pass as slowly as possible. Dunbar...
“What’s wrong with this picture?,” asks Van Morrison in the song of the same title. “There’s something I’m not seeing here.”
Repeating the question, Morrison observes that what’s wrong (is) “something that’s not exactly clear.”
As the vision streamed in from Gateshead last Monday morning, it was all too clear what...
On hearing of the death of Lady Macbeth and faced with his own impending overthrow, Shakespeare’s Macbeth tries to make sense of it all. Life, he concludes, is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Could have been talking about the World Relays.
In the...
Written by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Usually, we go to a world championships knowing what to expect. We may not get all, much or any of what we expected, but we go with a clear vision.
Doha 2019 is not like that. It doesn’t fit the norm. We don’t even...
