Ken Hall, who died on 3 May, was one of Australia’s best middle-distance runners at a time when our middle-distance stocks were almost universally under-rated. He ran fast. He raced aggressively. He held his own against some of the world’s greatest ever milers.
When Melbourne 1956 10,000 metres bronze medalist...
Forget the shoes: adidas will provide regular reminders anyway.
Forget the super-drink: one member of our chat group wondered whether a much cheaper mix of flat coke, soda water, hydralyte, choc milk, fruit, etc might tick the same boxes. In response I recounted my disastrous experience re-hydrating with strawberry flavoured...
By RT Johno with thanks to Seth O'Donnell
Seth O'Donnell was never supposed to be here. No little athletics. No junior cross country. No carefully constructed pathway through the state development squads and national camps that most elite Australian distance runners could trace back to childhood. He came through the...
The Last Barrier | by RT Johno
On a grey London morning, Sabastian Sawe ran into the realm of the impossible and made it look like inevitability
For decades, the two hour marathon existed in the same mental space as the four minute mile once did: a number so round, so...
Back in the days when John Landy was approaching the four-minute mile, a break-through 4:02.1 in Melbourne interclub at the end of 1952 attracted scepticism and praise in almost equal measure.
Praise, because his performance re-ignited the chase for the first sub-4 miles; scepticism because Landy at the time was...
Humankind returned to the moon this week – voyaged around it, at least – and an athlete won the Stawell Gift from scratch. Historically these two events happen with about the same frequency.
Alright, alright. I can already hear some smarty pants yelling at their smartphone or computer screen that...
It’s time to stop seeing Lachlan Kennedy as the spoiler to Gout Gout’s ambitions at 200 metres. Instead, it’s past time to acknowledge him as a headliner in his own right.
For the second year in a row, the Peter Norman Memorial 200 metres was the show-topper at the Maurie...
Aah, Melbourne: one weekend you’re sitting inside watching the world indoors after spending the day basking in beautiful autumnal; the next, you’re wondering how many layers to wear to ward off the expected cold - and perhaps rain - as Melbourne’s annual track classic kicks off the World Athletics...
I first set foot on an indoor athletics track in Toronto in 1976. In the 50 years since I have covered Ken Elphick's abortive indoor track series – one meeting in Brisbane before it all came crashing down – and three world indoor championships. And I still don’t know...
The former British Army captain who treats ultrarunning like a military operation has become the first British man to win UTMB. Here's how precision, data, and a mindset shift delivered the ultimate victory.
The Surgeon, Not the Bulldozer
"I want to be a surgeon rather than a bulldozer."
That single sentence captures...
