| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's athletics | ||
Representing the  United Kingdom | ||
| European Athletics Junior Championships | ||
 | 1975 Athens | 400 metres |
Peter Hoffmann (born 1 July 1, 1956) is an Edinburgh author and former international sportsman.
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's athletics | ||
| Representing the United Kingdom | ||
| European Athletics Junior Championships | ||
| 1975 Athens | 400 metres |
Peter Hoffmann (born 1 July 1, 1956) is an Edinburgh author and former international sportsman.
Born in Edinburgh, Peter Hoffmann was brought up in Oxgangs, Edinburgh and educated at Hunters Tryst Primary School and Boroughmuir High School. His mother attended the University of Edinburgh in 1954, and his father was a chief officer in the merchant navy who trained at the Edinburgh shipping company, Ben Line Agencies. In 1976 Hoffmann began studying for a degree in English and sports science and recreation management at Loughborough University but decided to leave shortly after starting the course. He instead graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BA in Business Studies (1981) and Dunfermline College of Physical Education with a postgraduate Diploma Recreation and Leisure Practice (1983).
For 25 years Hoffmann worked in the field of education, culture and sport in Midlothian and the Highlands, and for more than 10 years at chief officer level. He has written occasional articles for The Scotsman and Lothian Life.
He has written books on Edinburgh, sport and social history as well as biography and a fictional love story set in Edinburgh between the years 1960 and 1963.
He is the author of the recently published book Audacity and Idiocy: A Scottish Athlete’s 1978 Commonwealth Games Journal (2022) to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. It is the final book in a pentalogy of 5 athletics based books - A Life In A Day In A Year: A Postcard From Meadowbank, 1973-1978 (2017) which captures the Scottish athletics scene of the 1970s featuring such athletes as Roger Jenkins (banker) David Jenkins (sprinter) and Paul Forbes encapsulating the social culture of the Edinburgh era of the 1970s; Festina Lente - A Practical Philosophy of 800 Metres Running: The True Confessions Of Retep Nnamffoh: School's Out For Ever, A 1973 Edinburgh Young Athlete's Diary (2018); and You Can Run But You Can't Outrun Yourself: A 1950s Edinburgh Love Story (2021).
In 2021 Hoffmann authored the book Two Worlds telling the remarkable story of (Dr.) Arthur Philip Motley a Black American who as a young man left his home in McAlester City Oklahoma in 1928 to travel the 4351 miles across America and the Atlantic Ocean to come to Edinburgh Scotland to fulfil his dream to become a doctor going on to become a legendary figure in the community of Oxgangs.
Through their diaries, The Letts’ Schoolboys follows, tracks and contrasts the daily lives of five fellow British schoolboy diarists - T.G. Richards aged 15 in 1918 from Swansea Wales; English schoolboys G.D.B. (Gordon) Goodall from Worcester aged 14 at the beginning of 1930; Kenneth Holder aged 14 in 1935 from Woking; Derek Foster, aged 15 in 1940 who lives in Harrow but attends Dulwich College London during school-term; and their Scottish compatriot from across the years and the decades and the border, Peter Hoffmann, aged 14 in 1971, who attends Edinburgh’s Boroughmuir Senior Secondary School. Covering a period of over half a century the book follows their day to day lives in their own words including Spanish Flu, Test Matches, Churchill’s most famous speech, the German-France Armistice and even a World War 1 baseball match held in Swansea between Canada and the USA.
He is also the author of the Samuel Pepys An Edinburgh Town-Dweller series of journals covering the years 1971-1996.
Between 1974 and 1978 Hoffmann made fourteen international appearances for Scotland at 400, 800 and 4 x 400 metres relay. He was a British Junior International in 1974 and 1975 at 400 meters and 4 x 400 metres and between 1975 and 1978 also represented Great Britain at 400, 800 and 4 x 400 metres. In 1978 he was a Great Britain internationalist indoors over 800 metres. Representing Great Britain at the 1975 European Junior Championships he won a silver medal in the 400 metres. He was a member of the British Olympic 4 x 400 metres relay squad at Montreal, 1976. In 1978 he represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in the 800 metres and 4 x 400 metres relay. He had an unusually wide range winning the Scottish 50 metres indoor sprint as well as the British (AAA) 800 metres. Between 1973 and 1978 Hoffmann won 10 Scottish titles at Youth, Junior and Senior level; broke the Scottish Native 400 metres record on 3 occasions and won 7 AAAs medals at 200, 400 and 800 metres. He partnered Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett as the UK's third representative at the 1978 European Athletics Championships Men's 800 metres in Prague. In addition to winning AAA's titles at 400 and 800 metres Hoffmann took the silver medal behind Coe at the 1978 UK Athletics Championships.
In 2016 he represented Scotland at the 4 Nations Home Fencing Veterans’ International at epee.
He lives in the Highlands and is married with two sons, Will and Tom; the latter is an international epeeist and was part of the successful Scotland team which won the bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Fencing Championships and the 2018 Commonwealth Fencing Championships. With the closure of Meadowbank Stadium Hoffmann founded the Memory Hold The Door-Meadowbank Sports Centre legacy project allowing people from throughout the world to record their memories, stories, experiences, photographs and other memorabilia of the facility. In 2018 he also launched a similar project Oxgangs - A Pastime From Time Past - Spirits Across The Air which has been edited into the first volume of a projected small series. His hobbies include literature, painting, fencing and exercising. Hoffmann made a cameo appearance in the film Chariots Of Fire in the scene featuring the Scotland v Ireland international.
Ian Stewart MBE is a Scottish former long-distance running athlete. Ian Stewart was one of the world's leading distance runners between the late 1960s and mid-1970s. Stewart won the bronze medal in the Men's 5000 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Stewart also won the following championships: European 5,000 metres (1969), Commonwealth 5,000 metres (1970), European Indoor and World Cross Country (1975).
The 1986 Commonwealth Games was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 July and 2 August 1986. This was the second Commonwealth Games to be held in Edinburgh. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries boycotted the event because of the Thatcher government's policy of keeping Britain's sporting links with apartheid South Africa.
Peter Elliott is a former middle-distance runner from the United Kingdom. During his career, he won the gold medal in the 1500 metres at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, the silver medal in the 1500 metres at the 1988 Olympic Games, and the silver medal in the 800 metres at the 1987 World Championships.
Meadowbank Stadium is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and Old Meadowbank sports venues, it was originally built to host the 1970 Commonwealth Games. It also hosted the Games in 1986, becoming the first venue to host the Games twice. It is the current home of Scottish League Two side Edinburgh City.
Oxgangs is a suburb in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Surrounding districts include Caiystane, Dreghorn, Redford, Fairmilehead, Colinton and Swanston and Colinton Mains. The post code area for Oxgangs is EH13.
Robert Cameron Sharp is a Scottish former sprinter. In 1978 he won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in the 4 × 100 m relay alongside David Jenkins, Allan Wells, and Drew McMaster. He went on to compete in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games picking up three bronze medals, in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4x100 metres relay.
Brian Ian Whittle is a Scottish politician and former athlete, who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region since 2016. A member of the Scottish Conservatives, he serves as Shadow Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform.
Roger Allan Jenkins is a British financier and former international athlete. He is the brother of former World no.1 ranked 400m runner, Olympic medalist David Jenkins.
David Andrew Jenkins is a former World ranked no.1 400m track and field sprinter who also ran other sprint distances. He is, statistically, the highest ranking Scottish sprinter in history, above 1980 Olympic 100m champion Allan Wells. He was part of the UK relay team which won a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. Anabolic steroids were banned from athletics in 1976, and Jenkins has said that he began using steroids around then; although his times slowed from this point due in part to his increased propensity for injury. He was a finalist in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics 400m. He received a 7-year prison sentence in the 1980s for drug smuggling, but was able to serve a reduced period of 10-1/2 months by becoming an informant. Jenkins has subsequently had a business career in the United States. He is the brother of Roger Jenkins, also formerly an international athlete, who became one of the UK's highest paid bankers.
The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were an international, multi-sport event involving athletes with a disability from the Commonwealth countries. The event was sometimes referred to as the Paraplegic Empire Games and British Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. Athletes were generally those with spinal injuries or polio. The Games were an important milestone in the Paralympic sports movement as they began the decline of the Stoke Mandeville Games' dominating influence. The event was first held in 1962 and disestablished in 1974. The Games were held in the country hosting the Commonwealth Games for able-bodied athletes, a tradition eventually fully adopted by the larger Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Lynsey Sharp is a former Scottish track and field athlete who competed in the 800 metres. She is the 2012 European champion and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Her personal best is 1:57.69, the seventh fastest time over 800m by a British woman, set in the final of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Rosemary Olivia Wright is a former British sprinter and middle-distance runner. She won a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay at the 1969 European Championships, and a gold medal in the 800m at the 1970 Commonwealth Games. Her 800m best of 2:00.15, stood as the Scottish record for 30 years (1972-2002).
At the 2000 Commonwealth Youth Games, the athletics events were held at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland from 11 to 13 August. A total of 30 events were contested, divided equally between the sexes. Among the medallists were Nicola Sanders, the 2007 World Championships runner-up in the 400 metres, and Johan Cronje.
Chris O'Hare is a Scottish middle-distance runner who competes in the 1500 metres. He has represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games.
The New Year Sprint is the name of a handicap sprint race for professional athletes that takes place each year in Scotland. The sprint is one of the original events of this type, tracing its history back to 1870.
Jake Wightman is a British middle-distance runner who primarily competes in the 1500 metres. He won the gold medal at the 2022 World Championships, the first global gold in a middle distance event for a British male since Seb Coe's 1500 m title at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. At the European Athletics Championships, Wightman earned a bronze in 2018 and a silver for the 800 metres in 2022. He won bronze medals at the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Third Commonwealth Paraplegic Games was a multi-sport event that was held in Edinburgh, Scotland from 26 July to 1 August 1970. Dubbed the "little games", they followed the 1970 British Commonwealth Games which were held in Edinburgh from 16 to 25 July of that year.
John Gladwin is an English former middle-distance runner and athletics administrator.
John Mark Holtom is a male retired English athlete who specialised in the sprint hurdles.
The 1978 UK Athletics Championships was the national championship in outdoor track and field for the United Kingdom held at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh.