Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 12

LEAD STORY
Dynamite
Comes in Small
Packages
The merest breeze seems strong enough to knock Shadrack Hoff over.
Standing 1.73m tall and weighing a mere 55kg, one commentator summed
it up best a few years ago when he said that he “had seen more meat on a
matchstick.” But beneath that diminutive figure lies a determination and steely
resolve that saw Shadrack win titles and set records on SA soil, perform well at
the World Cross Country Championships, twice lead an SA team to victory in the
prestigious Ekiden Relay in Japan, and twice be part of the gold medal winning
SA team at the World Half Marathon Championships. As they say, dynamite does
indeed come in small packages! – BY MANFRED SEIDLER
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ISSUE 124 NOVEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
O
ne of the most awe-inspiring moments in
South African athletic history was watching
the diminutive figure of Shadrack Hoff leading
the World’s best around the circuit of the 1996 World
Cross Country Championships, hosted in South
Africa. The spectators who gathered on the University
of Stellenbosch sports grounds on 23 March were
treated to something spectacular as the best
middle distance athletes in the world had gathered,
including names such as Paul Tergat, eventually a
six-time World Cross Country Champion, as well as
Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Koech, Ismail Kirui, Khalid
Skah and Salah Hissou. But when the gun went off,
Shadrack was in the mix of it, right up front. He was
brimming with confidence and says he had huge
ambitions. “I felt I was in such good shape, and I
wanted to win.”