{"id":48127,"date":"2020-10-18T12:08:24","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T04:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runnerstribe.com\/?p=48127"},"modified":"2024-09-18T17:05:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T09:05:21","slug":"please-buy-this-record-len-johnson-recaps-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/len-johnson-articles\/please-buy-this-record-len-johnson-recaps-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Buy This Record: Len Johnson Recaps 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Len Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n

I never had a record-breaking career, but early in my record-buying career I acquired a disc recorded\u00a0by British comedian, Peter Sellers.<\/p>\n

\"Advertisement<\/a><\/p>\n

One track tells the tale of a pre-teen pop music phenomenon whose 15 minutes of fame had clearly\u00a0come and was going fast. Our popster, despairing he hasn\u2019t had a chart-topper for all of three weeks,\u00a0ends the track I\u2019m So Ashamed with a sobbing plea: \u201cPlease Buy This Record.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a bad metaphor for sport in 2020. The devastating impact of Covid19 was felt early and has\u00a0endured throughout. By the end of March the Tokyo Olympic Games had been postponed. We are\u00a0assured that the Games will go ahead same time next year, yet we were assured they would go\u00a0ahead this year until they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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RAFAEL NADAL (ESP)
TENNIS – FRENCH OPEN – ROLAND GARROS – ATP – WTA – ITF – GRAND SLAM – CHAMPIONSHIPS – PARIS – FRANCE – 2020
\u00a9 TENNIS PHOTO NETWORK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open \u2013 to go in their usual calendar order \u2013 were
\npostponed, cancelled and postponed, respectively, before the US and the French were played pretty\u00a0well back-to-back in September-October. About the only show of normalcy was that Rafael Nadal\u00a0won the men\u2019s title at the French and Naomi Osaka continued her rise in winning the US women\u2019s\u00a0title.<\/p>\n

At the elite football level \u2013 the world game \u2013 there was no unity. Some leagues \u2013 the French and\u00a0Dutch, for example – were called at the point they had reached; others, Germany\u2019s Bundesliga,\u00a0England\u2019s Premier League, completed their seasons after a months-long interruption, before rolling\u00a0straight into the 2020-21 season, compromising not one, but two seasons.<\/p>\n

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NO BUGLES NO DRUMS – PETER SNELL’S BIOGRAPHY BY GARTH GILMOUR (Click on the cover above.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Athletics suffered as severely as any sport. The Olympics, the showcase for the once-every-four\u00a0years spectator, didn\u2019t happen. The world championships, world cross-country and world indoors\u00a0have all moved back one year.<\/p>\n

The world half-marathon championships has survived the carnage, and took place this weekend\u00a0(17 October) in Gydnia, Poland. 27-year-old Peres Jepchirchir claimed her second global title at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, Gdynia 2020. She clocked an astounding 1:05:16 in cold and windy conditions. Her time – a new world record (pending ratification) in a women-only race….<\/p>\n