Julian Drew
SOUTH AFRICAN 5 000m record holder Shadrack Hoff of Pretoria Correctional Services is in awesome shape at the moment. He just missed the national 10 000m record in Port Elizabeth two weeks ago and has already posted an Olympic qualifier in the 5 000m this year.
While Hoff’s times won’t make the likes of Haile Gebrselassie lose any sleep, the most impressive thing about them is that, according to his coach Kenny Bouwer, “Shadrack has still not come off his winter training programme in his build-up for Atlanta.”
Hoff is understandably bullish about Saturday’s race. “I’m going with my ‘plan A’ for the world cross country championships which is to go out with the leaders right from the start. I’m not going to make the same mistake I’ve made before and just sit back and wait. If you want to compete with the best in the world then you have to keep up with them. You can’t sit back and make your move at the end because then it is too late,” says Hoff.
Hoff is one of the new breed of South African middle-distance runners who are no longer overawed by the exploits of the world’s best runners. He has realised that the only way to bridge the gap is to take them on and get used to racing at their level.
“I’m not afraid of blowing. I’m well prepared physically and mentally and it’s high time we South Africans began to shape. I’ve told my team mates we can no longer make excuses about our lack of international competition. Those times are over now. It’s just a case of hard training and then you must get out there and run,” says Hoff.
But while Hoff is in good physical condition right now, he is far from happy with Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) lack of concern with the preparation of the team and the kind of sacrifices they are having to make.
Hoff’s main goal is the Atlanta Olympic Games and some of the other team members are also trying to qualify for the Olympics. Unfortunately Hoff’s far-from-ideal preparations for the world cross country championships included a couple of showdown meetings last week with ASA general secretary Banele Sindani and its chief executive, Bernard Rose.
He was the spokesman who voiced the concerns of the men’s team which were raised at the 10 000m race in Port Elizabeth. The athletes are unhappy because they have had to alter their Olympic programmes but are getting just R300 for their efforts.
ASA has offered cash incentives if the team finishes in the top three or an individual in the top 10 but the team feel these targets to be unrealistic. “Banele said there is a lot of money involved if we do well as a team but how can we do well as a team if we don’t train together and prepare as a team a long time beforehand like all the other countries,” says Hoff.
The Correctional Services athletes wanted the team to train at Esselen Park outside Johannesburg last week so that they could get in shape for the championships and determine who was fit. Several of the team are known to be carrying injuries. However, the team only assembled in Cape Town on Monday when it was already too late to do anything but light training.
“We don’t know what they are going to do but I think they must look at some of the reserves because they are in better shape than some of the guys in the team,” said Hoff.
The money issue has also still not been resolved. Rose said at a press conference last week that, “we are the first federation to award incentives for a world championships event”. But he is clearly as out of touch with world trends as he is with his own athletes if the Portuguese team is anything to go by. (See story on Paulo Guerra.)