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.

Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Congratulations to Jack Rayner, Celia Sullohern and their teammates for delivering a great result for Australia in the Commonwealth half-marathon championships in Cardiff last weekend (7 October). Rayner won the men’s race outright in 61:01, rocketing past Robert de Castella and Pat Carroll – among others...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Paula Radcliffe and Eliud Kipchoge have one thing in common. Each holds the world marathon record. Further, each holds the record with a performance variously described as “other worldly” and “putting the record out of sight for a generation”. Kipchoge’s 2:01:39 was described as a “moon...
A column by Len Johnson My good friend Brian Lenton has asked me to do a column on his latest book: Thredbo, 50 Years Running, 1968-2017. By way of disclaimer, this is as much of a disclaimer as you are going to get. As Brian once told me in another context:...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe Many thoughts flashed through my mind after Eliud Kipchoge’s world record marathon. The first was: “Amazing.” Neither insightful, nor unique, but what else comes immediately to mind after a man runs 2:01:39 for the classic 42.195-kilometer distance. Just about the second thought, possibly because it leapt out...
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...
Runner's Tribe It is a good time to be an emerging high jumper, an even better time to be Brandon Starc. With the world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim sidelined by injury, and the handful of other men who have recently challenged 2.40 metres, and beyond, variously sidelined or not jumping similar...
A column by Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe What is it about the Letzigrund stadium and the Weltklasse meeting. For the second year in a row, Zurich’s beloved boutique venue produced a memorable distance race in which the winner triumphed almost purely on their will to win. A year ago, it...
By Len Johnson – Runner’s Tribe – Len is RT’s lead columnist, a sub 2:20 marathoner, Author of ‘The Landy Era’ and a key writer for the IAAF, amongst other things… The Australian half-marathon championships at Maroochydore one weekend, the Australian cross-country championships at Maleny this weekend (25 August): it’s...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe - Len is RT's lead columnist, a sub 2:20 marathoner, Author of 'The Landy Era' and a key writer for the IAAF, amongst other things... Youth is wasted on the young, George Bernard Shaw once observed. He surely did not have Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Armand...
Len Johnson - Runner's Tribe The road distance event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be a half-marathon, at least compared to its immediate predecessor at Rio 2016. No, the traditional, 42.195-kilometre distance will not be slashed by 50 percent (fiddling with the distance might be grounds for revolution in...
                   

Brilliantly

SAFE!

2022