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ROAD RUNNING Revolutionising Running TV Livestream broadcasts of road running events has become the ‘in thing’ at the bigger events in South Africa this year, so we chatted to Modern Athlete columnist and features writer Manfred Seidler, who has worked in broadcasting for more than 20 years, and was involved in all of these trailblazing broadcasts. – BY SEAN FALCONER Two years after those Olympics, Manfred tried his own hand at running, managing around 33 minutes for 10km, and while in the army in 1989, he ran his first marathon, clocking 3:36, followed by a Comrades Marathon in 10:38. “I never wanted to run Comrades, but when the army said I would get 10 days’ leave in Durban if I ran, I said sign me up!” In 1995 he signed up with coach Dave Spence and managed 77 minutes in the half marathon, but his promising running career was cut short as work demands increased. He had become involved in sports media, marketing and PR in 1994 with a company called Competitive Link, which subsequently became API, then Octagon. Much of his work was in athletics and road running, and by 1997 he says he had stopped racing. “I simply had too many red-eye flights for work, and it was not possible to maintain a proper training schedule. If I was going to run, I wanted to be competitive... and to be honest, it was a lot more fun on the back of press truck then getting up early to pound out mileage.” 24 Jeppe Marathon | 9 February 2020 Invaluable Experience Fast forward to today and Manfred, now 50 and living in Centurion, has accumulated a veritable ton of experience in the media side of the sport, as a journalist, radio and TV presenter, interviewer, researcher, analyst, cameraman, producer and more. For many years he was involved in the television programmes World of Endurance and Athletics Alive, with the latter show giving him the opportunity to travel extensively. “We ‘chased’ SA athletes all over to get the stories, and I was living my dream, getting paid to travel the world and hang out with and watch the world’s top athletes in action.” In 1998 he co-produced the broadcast of the Soweto Marathon with Vince Gibbons, helping to produce pre-race footage, overseeing the filming on race day, and putting together the highlights package, but says his one complaint was not being allowed to do commentary. “I was seriously ticked off that I was not given a shot at it, but Vince saw me more as a producer. I believe I could have been doing commentary since way back then.” Fortunately, his chance did eventually come this past April, and he grabbed it with both hands. “Three days before the Two Oceans Marathon, I received a call Manfred Seidler and Cuan Walker at Two Oceans I t all started with the 1984 Olympic Games. A young Manfred Seidler, then 15, couldn’t watch the Games on South African television, but his family knew a German family down the road who had German satellite TV, and he was enthralled by the athletics. “I watched athletes such as Carl Lewis, Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and more in action, and I just fell in love with athletics,” he recalls. It was also his first taste of live coverage of the sport, and planted a seed that would bear fruit later in his own career in the running industry.