In his competitive days, Alec Riddle was known as the Riddler, whereas these days he is better known as the‘ Eye in the Sky,’ hovering above the leading runners at televised races to provide live updates from the route, which is just part of a very interesting and highly successful career as an athlete, coach and commentator.

– BY SEAN FALCONER

n 2015, when the SABC was looking for somebody to put in a helicopter to do live commentary at the big races such as the Comrades and Old Mutual Two Oceans ultras, one of the names put forward was that of Alec Riddle. Having been a runner much of his life, done both races, and done many years of television commentary, it was a natural fit.“ It’ s a lovely way to watch the race, as you can see it unfolding even better than on TV,” says Alec.“ I remember in 2015 telling the viewers and studio team to watch out for a guy I could see slicing through the top 10 at Camperdown, and that turned out to be Gift Kelehe, who went on to win the race.”

Of course, it helps that Alec has three silver medals each in the two big ultras and knows their routes well. In fact, he was 21 st in the 1988 Comrades with a 6:05:23 time, came into the finish alongside 1990 women’ s winner Nadine Harrison( whose sister is married to his brother), and in 1991 he finished alongside Bruce Fordyce after running much of the race with women’ s winner Frith van der Merwe.“ I was with her from 10km to 75km, because I was determined not to let a woman beat me. Then I blew spectacularly, and was sitting there when Bruce came along and sat down next to me. He told me he was waiting for a TV camera so he could tell everybody I was throwing myself a pity party... That got me going again!”

Having been awarded SA colours in biathlon, triathlon and lifesaving, in later years Alec came back from a long lay-off from competitive sport to earn spots at the World Ironman Champs in both Full Ironman and Ironman 70.3 distances, and in 2011 was crowned World Champion in his age category at the 70.3 World

Champs in Las Vegas. Not bad for a guy who says he was very much a second-tier runner throughout

school …

With his father working in the building industry, Alec’ s family left England when he was six and worked their way down to SA.“ My Dad arrived home one day and my Mom said she had applied for a job in Africa for him, because she was tired of the English weather. So they packed their bags and the four kids, and we’ ve been here ever since,” jokes Alec. He grew up in Natal and says he discovered a love for running at Westville Boys High School, then at Empangeni High School.“ I wasn’ t particularly good while at school, but we had an exceptionally good running culture at school, and one of my highlights was winning the under-15 schools category at the SA Cross Country Champs in East London as part of the Westville team.”

After school he went to study at the University of Port Elizabeth, and that is another interesting story.“ I was registered to go to Rhodes, but just after finishing Matric, I went into the SweatShop store in Braamfontein, and Gordon Howie suggested I go to UPE instead, due to its strong athletics team. He phoned Mike Bosch, who organised me a bursary, and my whole life changed. We had a wonderful running club for the years that I was there, and legendary SA miler Johan Fourie once told me that UPE never had the same depth as Tuks or Maties, but in relays, we always managed to give them a real challenge.”

Alec went on to earn his SA University colours in this third year after finishing ninth at the SAU Cross Country Champs in Stellenbosch, but he says the

highlight of his UPE days was in 1982 when a he was part of a 10-man team that broke the 24-hour relay World Record in Cape Town.“ We ran 303 miles in 24 hours and I did 33 miles, with our team averaging about 4:40 per mile, which is equal to about 2:55 per kay!”

Having completed a BA degree, majoring in Mathematics, Alec began teaching at Grey High School in PE, then was offered a marketing post for the Grey PE schools. Later he started a sports management business, representing top sports stars such as cricketers Kepler Wessels and Dave Callaghan, and the next chapter saw him help launch Max Africa in 1999, with Xolile Yawa and Mark Sanan. It was a PE-based high performance training camp, backed by New Balance, that attracted some of the top talent in South Africa, and Alec is justifiably proud of their achievements.

“ Our goal was to get SA athletes competitive, and we picked up a few international victories, with the

Images: Courtesy Alec Riddle