As the lead pack in the senior women’s race battled its way around the second half of the tough Aarhus course in the recent world cross-country championships, it wasn’t easy to pick the likely winner.
The next runner to drop off, now that was another matter altogether. Hellen Obiri always...
Newcomers emerge. From nowhere, but suddenly ready. Established performers can find the lure of the Olympics has seduced them into stretching their career just one more year before cruelly abandoning them. Fixed in their four-year cycle – except Tokyo! - the Games timing has a touch of Goldilocks, a year too soon for some, a year too late for others, just right for the medallists.
How do you set an Australian record when 15 athletes – yourself, and the previous record-holder, included – have a superior legal performance.
Simple, as it turns out. You just put a timer at the 100-yard point of a 100 metres race.
That’s what happened in the New South Wales state...
When Krishna Stanton burst onto the international scene in early-1987, it seemed she could be anything. Fourth in the 3000 metres at the world indoor championships, eighth in a world cross-country run over what was reported as the “freezing muddy wastes of Sluzewiac Racecourse,” the world seemed at her...
Cargo bolt comes up the river: A Column By Len Johnson
Cargo cult mentality refers to a belief by some Melanesian islanders that all their world issues would be resolved by the landing of an airplane carrying supplies and goods.
This belief grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries and...
Actually, it should have taught me a whole heap of things, starting with: “Why am I still doing this,” but I’m going to dissociate from that question straight away.
Disocciation is actually a significant mental condition (see footnote), and I wouldn’t want to make light of it. I’m talking about...
RT's lead columnist, Len Johnson is reporting from the Gold Coast during the games for Runner's Tribe and the IAAF.
So hard to walk away - A column by Len Johnson
It’s getting harder and harder to walk away these days – either on a temporary basis or into permanent retirement.
Sally...
Every person who has ever climbed a ladder has experienced the feeling. Once you start to come down, your first step is blind, your foot searching for something solid. You’ve taken every precaution; you know you will find a sound footing, but it’s still a relief when you do.
A column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe
Next year’s world championships in Doha will feature another Breaking 2 event.
Not two hours this time, but two days. To ameliorate the brutally hot conditions of a Persian Gulf summer, the two marathons will start at midnight.
OK, that’s actually not two separate...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe
When I boarded a plane bound for Alice Springs a couple of weeks ago, the following things held true: no-one had run a marathon in under two hours; Paula Radcliffe’s world record marathon remained almost a full two minutes outside the reach...
