{"id":76930,"date":"2025-05-25T20:46:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T12:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/?p=76930"},"modified":"2025-05-25T20:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T12:46:30","slug":"a-day-at-the-circus-a-column-by-len-johson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/features\/a-day-at-the-circus-a-column-by-len-johson\/","title":{"rendered":"A day at the circus | A column by Len Johson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John Landy once wrote a report for Australian Athletics which someone within the governing body \u2013 I can\u2019t believe it was John\u2019s idea \u2013 released under the title: \u2018Change or Die\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I can\u2019t resist the urge to point out every time I have cited that report over the years, the sport did neither. Athletics in Australia didn\u2019t change (not much, anyway). Nor did it die. It\u2019s still very much alive, thriving, in fact. Part of the explanation for this state of affairs is that the 2032 Olympic Games will be staged in Brisbane and, if I\u2019m not telescoping the timescale too much, Sydney was awarded the 2000 Olympics not that long after Landy\u2019s report.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-76931\" src=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-1024x580.avif\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-1024x580.avif 1024w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-300x170.avif 300w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-768x435.avif 768w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-1536x869.avif 1536w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-scaled.avif 2048w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-696x394.avif 696w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-1068x605.avif 1068w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-742x420.avif 742w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/brisbane-2032-cta-1920x1087.avif 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/>Tentative conclusion then: Olympic Games hosting is an excellent way for Olympic sports to dodge death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leaving that aside, however, it seems that we are tossing on a stormy sea of change at the moment. World Athletics has been all activations and innovations for a few years now: I date it back to the world indoor championships in Portland, Oregon in 2016. That was the first time I noticed things like athlete entry to the track being accompanied by a volley of gas guns and selected events being contested outside the stadium, but I may have been slow to notice. Shot putters and pole vaulters nowadays see more of the host city\u2019s squares and railway stations than they do of the stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And to come next year is the Ultimate Championship, a \u2018really big show\u2019 as presenter Ed Sullivan would ritually atone each Sunday night in the early days of US network television about the line-up of guests for his weekly variety show. No doubt we will hear more and more of this event as we draw closer to it, but for the minute we must be satisfied \u2013 largely \u2013 by the assurance that it is \u2018the ultimate\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_76916\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-76916\" style=\"width: 491px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tarkine.com\/collections\/autopilot-radical\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-76916 \" src=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-1024x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"491\" height=\"491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-696x696.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-1068x1068.jpeg 1068w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE-420x420.jpeg 420w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/M6h5YNqE.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-76916\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ad: The Radical by Tarkine. Limited Edition Out Now!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s going along with the innovation agenda as tested in several meetings already and which includes things like a one-metre take-off zone in the horizontal jumps, innovation upon innovation by adding a mixed 4&#215;100 relay to the previously introduced mixed 4&#215;400, tinkering with the false-start rules, the 200 metre hurdles, a one mile steeplechase \u2013 the four-minute barrier (for men, anyway) added to the traditional five barriers per lap, and heaps more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then there\u2019s Grand Slam Track, which we could summarise as a concept built on providing heaps less. Track events only. Just one thing happening at a time. Athletes running in two events over three days (reduced, already, to a two-day format so now twice in two days). Why no field events? Well, as Michael Johnson put it, he can maybe save track but he can\u2019t save track and field. Not yet, anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grand Slam Track appears mostly about presenting the traditional elements of track \u2013 some of track, anyway \u2013 in a more attractive package. More head-to-head competition by signing star athletes to compete a fixed number of times, namely eight over its four meetings in the inaugural season. As mentioned here a couple of weeks back, it already has Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone competing more times this year than she has in the previous two. So, that can\u2019t be a bad thing, although not having Mondo Duplantis compete at all is definitely NOT a good thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-76932\" src=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1-747x420.jpg 747w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/maxresdefault-1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/>But, as also mentioned then, it\u2019s too early to judge the impact.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of the innovation drive seems directed at getting fans to focus on one thing at a time, focusing attention through presentation and, in the case of GST, elimination of events judged surplus to requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What if, though, part of the appeal of athletics is its ability to showcase several things at once. I was first struck by this thought when I came across a report on Melbourne interclub competition back in the 1950s. This was in the lead-up to the Melbourne Olympic Games, too, reinforcing the suggestion that the way to save the sport is to have the next Olympics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyway, our observer went to an interclub competition in November 1953. Maybe they saw Landy race in pursuit of the four-minute mile. Regardless, it wasn\u2019t any <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> thing that entranced them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo other city in the world can match Melbourne\u2019s weekly, non-stop athletic carnival,\u201d our columnist enthused. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to see one of these interclub meetings to believe it. It\u2019s nothing to see five events going on at the same time, with each set of competitors oblivious to the others. But it\u2019s a spectacular sight for spectators.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, if Landy was there and racing that day, most of those spectators <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">had<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> come to see just one thing. No matter, they were also exposed to the others. You can\u2019t watch five events at once if there is only one going on.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_25822\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25822\" style=\"width: 696px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-25822\" src=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-1024x669.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-1024x669.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-696x455.jpg 696w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-741x486.jpg 741w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-1068x698.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister-643x420.jpg 643w, https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Sir-Roger-Bannister.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25822\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The moment Bannister passed his rival John Landy at the V British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada in 1954. Photo: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the writer\u2019s thoughts mirrored my own the first time I attended the Zurich <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weltklasse <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(no events at the railway station that year: Sergey Bubka was in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Letzigrund<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, contending with several other events). Likewise at my first indoor meeting, the world championships at Maebashi, Japan, in 1999. Or the way the epic shot put battle between Tommy Walsh, Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs at the world outdoor championships in Doha in 2019 grabbed the attention amidst all the potential distractions. That competition was made better by the other events competing for fans\u2019 eyeballs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only one opinion, but I reckon the appeal of track and field is first its simplicity &#8211; fastest, highest, strongest; the immediacy of the result; then its variety. Something for everyone, every minute. A carnival of excellence competing for our attention.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Landy once wrote a report for Australian Athletics which someone within the governing body \u2013 I can\u2019t believe it was John\u2019s idea \u2013 released under the title: \u2018Change or Die\u2019. As I can\u2019t resist the urge to point out every time I have cited that report over the years, the sport did neither. Athletics [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-len-johnson-articles","category-features"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.8 (Yoast SEO v25.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A day at the circus | A column by Len Johson - Runner&#039;s Tribe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Only one opinion, but I reckon the appeal of track and field is first its simplicity - fastest, highest, strongest; the immediacy of the result; then its variety. Something for everyone, every minute. 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