Cheptegei is very, very (insert extra ‘veries’ as per personal preference) good. Three times a world champion at 10,000 metres, an Olympic champion at 5000 metres and as of 2 August, 2024, Olympic champion at 10,000 metres after the deepest 10,000 ever run at championships or any other level.
By Len Johnson
Eliud Kipchoge is re-defining men’s marathon running. An Olympic gold medal, a world record, 11 wins from 12 major marathons (12 from 13 if you include the Breaking 2 project), the last 10 consecutive - will tend to do that.
A better question might be: is Kipchoge also...
Bring back the mile – has it ever gone away? A Column By Len Johnson
In outlining his vision to make athletics more appealing to a younger audience, Sebastian Coe recently observed: “The average age of those watching track and field is 55 years old. This is not sustainable.”
How does...
A Column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Crikey. No sooner do we write in defence of Matt Centrowitz’s tactics in the Rio Olympic men’s 1500 metres final than we get an Australian championships replete with races run on what we might now call the Centrowitz-Kipyegon model: slow as a...
But that was before the whole sport was hit by a missile with the news that Peter Bol had returned an “AAF (adverse analytical finding) for Erythropoietin Receptor Agonists (ERA): rEPO (rEPO).” Synthetic EPO, in other words, which is a proscribed substance.
A column by Len Johnson | Runner's Tribe
All weeks have seven days, but some weeks seem to cram more in than others.
The last week of May, 2018 was one such week. It began with Linden Hall setting an Australian record for 1500 metres at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League...
Everything is déjà vu for Jakob Ingebrigsten at the moment. He’s been to the dark room before, probably found the seat quite comfortable this time. On day six he emerged to run the heats of the 5000 metres.
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...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
Two things surprised me at my first Commonwealth Games as a journalist in Auckland in 1990.
The first, Andrew Lloyd’s victory in an amazing 5000 metres race, still surprises me to this day. I don’t know if ‘Lloydie’ still sometimes wonders if it...
A Column By Len Johnson
In announcing her retirement this week, Alana Boyd got the timing just right.
Timing is everything in Boyd’s event, the pole vault. It is no good having the height before the crossbar, no good having it after. For a clearance, you must have the height at...
