A Column By Len Johnson

Len Johnson wrote for The Melbourne Age as an athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games.

He has been the long-time lead columnist on RT and is one of the world’s most respected athletic writers.

He is also a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) and trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella among other running legends. He is the author of The Landy Era.

If I had to pick one abiding memory of the third world championships in Tokyo in 1991 it would be the humidity which descended on your shoulders like a heavy cloak the moment you stepped outside.
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...
The Dubai marathon has been going 20 years now. It’s about time I made up my mind about it. For most of those years, Dubai has produced outstanding times. The 2019 edition certainly did – Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya’s 2:17:08 was the third-fastest marathon ever by a woman. In second...
Some readers may be familiar with The Goon Show, an inspired BBC radio comedy program of the day based on the vivid imaginings of Spike Milligan – the grandfather of modern British comedy - as interpreted by Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. One episode concerns a mysterious epidemic of...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. Janus presided over the beginning and ending of...
Since you ask, the five male nominees are Kelvin Kiptum, Neeraj Chopra, Noah Lyles, Ryan Crouser and Mondo Duplantis; the female nominees are Tigst Assefa, Femke Bol, Faith Kipyegon, Shericka Jackson and Yulimar Rojas.
The big picture numbers were more stable too. Australia got three medals in Tokyo – Nicola Olyslagers silver in the high jump, Moloney and Barber bronzes in the decathlon and javelin. It was three again in Eugene only this time Patterson and Barber contributed gold with Kennedy getting a bronze.
Good grief. Are the national championships really coming up in Brisbane in a week’s time. I guess they must be. I’ve been getting emails advertising the fact all this past week.
When this column drew the curtain on 2021 with a look at the annual Track & Field News rankings, I commented it had been a notably strong year for Australian athletes. I hadn’t realised how strong until former Athletics Australia president Terry Dwyer drew my attention to the magazine’s analysis of the rankings.
Period of Adjustment, the debut feature film for director George Roy Hill, was based on the Tennessee Williams stage play of the same name about two married couples experiencing relationship problems. A period of adjustment is what is faced by athletics – all sport, in fact – in adapting to...
                   

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022