Not a single member of the Athletics Australia selection panel, however, will be breathing a sigh of relief. There is still plenty of work to be done, particularly in the middle-distance events were there are way more contenders for places in Paris than there are places in Paris.
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
In the world or precious stones, cut diamonds are more precious than raw, uncut diamonds.
The cutting process – expensive in itself – adds value. Expertly cut diamonds will always have more value than raw, uncut diamonds of the same carat, colour and...
Marjorie Jackson, who celebrated her 90th birthday on 13 September, was Australia’s first athletics superstar.
Our first women’s Olympic gold medallist, our first women’s world record holder, Jackson surged to international recognition with a double in the 100 and 200 metres at the Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games. She would have...
About the only English people feeling less than devastated about England’s World Cup exit are the people staging England’s World Cup this weekend (14-15 July).
How’s that, you ask. Well, England lost in football’s World Cup semi-finals to Croatia and won’t be further involved, the third/fourth place playoff aside. Instead...
When you can win by losing | A Column By Len Johnson
The descriptors applied to selection trials overwhelmingly emphasise the drama. Cut-throat, sudden-death, fourth is the worst possible place – insert your cliché of choice.
Seldom is it mentioned that trials, along with heats and qualifying rounds, are one of...
how then to assess athletics in 2021. There were good things and bad things to be sure and good and bad monarchs still run the sport. But was 2021 a good year, a bad year, or a first taste of some new normal.
One night back in the late-1970s, the announcer at Melbourne’s Olympic Park finally gave vent to his exasperation at the cat-and-mouse battle between two of Australia’s leading distance athletes on the track below for the Victorian men’s 5000 metres title.
“Doesn’t anyone want to win this race,” he cried.
I couldn’t...
If, like me, you think innovation in athletics started with Nitro and those introductions were athletes trot onto the track past a couple of exploding gas canisters, then you’ve probably never heard of the International Track Association.
Fifty years ago this month (I can write that because it’s 31 March...
Ghost Who Runs - Fast! | A Column by Len Johnson
Hunched of shoulder, stooped of frame, Ibrahim Jeilan’s running style resembles nothing more than a question mark.
If that is so, then the question Jeilan poses is this: can the last man to defeat Mo Farah for a global 5000...
“It seems crazy,” Kerr responded, comparing the 40,000 to money on offer in other sports and against the appearance fees paid to some of the world indoor gold medallists – Noah Lyles, Grant Holloway and Femke Bol three he name-checked – to compete at other meetings (guess Kerr’s implying it’s less?).
