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.

Well, there you are, history does repeat after all. After the drama of day three, the final playing out of day four was not quite as dramatic, even if it did follow a similar pattern.
Written by Len Johnson - (c) Runner's Tribe We haven’t become so blasé as to not welcome a sub-13 5000 metres. Not to mention two performances behind of 13:00-point. That being the case, let’s say “WOW! WOW! wow” about the performances of William ‘Woody’ Kincaid, Lopez Lomong and Matt Centrowitz in...
Glory days, well they'll pass you by, Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye, Glory days, glory days - Bruce Springsteen ‘The Boss’ had that right, I reckon. The glory days pass you by: rarely do they return. Which is why the announcement this week of a revamped Melbourne Track Classic...
Readers of this column will know that I have never met a 10,000-metre race I did not like. “What never,” you ask. “No; never,” I re-affirm stoutly. “What never,” you repeat even more disbelievingly. “Well, hardly ever,” I reply, grudgingly giving an inch. To experience, exceptional performance in running, choose the...
Runner's Tribe At the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham last weekend (16 February), Joseph Deng set an Australian record in winning the 800 metres in 1:47.27. Or did he? According to the records section of Athletics Australia’s website, the mark Deng bettered was the 1:47.48 by Ryan Foster in 2010. All...
One of the stranger things about the world championships is waiting for them to start. There is a hell of a build up and then, two weeks or so out from opening day, we go into a state of suspended animation.
JULIAN SPENCE: Written by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Members Only You’re not far into a conversation with Julian Spence when he observes: “I’m a bit of a running nerd.” One aspect of this is an eclectic library of running literature, of which more later. Next, consider Nick Earl’s account of...
A Column by Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe  There wasn’t much reason to remember the 1970s – apart from the fact that we could. It was the decade we regained our memories. It followed the ‘60s and, as everyone knows, if you can remember the ‘60s, you probably weren’t there. Athletically,...
On day seven, Budapest’s national athletics centre turned into the house of stoush. Over at the triple jump, Yulimar Rojas got off the canvas to win her fourth straight title by knock-out.
The runaway train that is the Change Express continues to cut a swathe through the athletics world. Having shunted race walking into a siding last time out, the train careered on in the direction of the Diamond League. Perhaps not surprisingly given the locomotive’s near-warp speed, the major casualty on...
                   

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022