A column by Len Johnson
From the time I started following Australian athletics seriously – lost in the mists of time, but probably the 1970s – there’s been one constant helping my research: Paul Jenes and his Australian lists.
Jenesy, as he’s so known to such a wide extent that it’s...
Jessica Hull was pretty excited about smashing the Australian 1500 metres record at the Golden Gala Diamond League meeting in Florence last week.
So she should be, too. Hull’s performance continued the rich vein of form she has been in to date in 2023. A bronze medal in the mixed...
From Rabat to Kampala
A Colum By Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
This Sunday, the Australian teams to contest the world cross-country championships leave for Kampala. It is just on 42 years since Australia first contested the event in Rabat, Morocco, on 16 March, 1975.
Now, 42 might seem a strange anniversary...
Awards season continues. World Athletics announces its annual awards, leaving December and the latter part of November out of the ‘year’ presumably in pursuit of getting in first. Track & Field News releases its annual rankings, holy writ from The Bible of the Sport. Now – finally, comes the...
Cross-country is a grass roots discipline. True – given that almost every kid around the world has been introduced to the sport via their primary school’s sports day. And if that’s not grass roots, I don’t know what is.
It’s also true in the physical sense, because cross-country is conducted...
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Oslo – the Melbourne of the north | A column by Len Johnson
A long time ago when we were all good young distance athletes, someone – Chris Wardlaw, I think – dubbed Melbourne the Oslo of the South....
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...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Sometimes, when we laud athletes for consistency, it seems we are damning them with faint praise. It’s as if excellence can’t really be excellence if it is repeatable.
There’s some logic to that. Things cannot be outstanding unless they stand out. What they usually stand out...
It’s hard to get Amy Winehouse, Roger Bannister and Seth O’Donnell into the same story. Please bear with me as I give it a red-hot go. It’s a long bow but I think I might be able to bend it.
The Victorian Milers Club is in its twentieth year. Meeting...
Zatopek week 2019 was highlighted by two significant events. First was the death of Peter Snell just a few days before the race; second, the win in national record time of Stewart McSweyn in the fifty-ninth running of the men’s 10,000 metres.
It would be drawing too long a bow...
