We’re unhappy to report the demise of David (Dave) Kreckeler.
Dave was arguably the main athlete, and definitely the main endurance runner within the first 25 years of the lifetime of the Guernsey Island AAC and carried out primarily in occasions from 1 mile to the Marathon, he retired his athletic profession in 1971 because the Guernsey report holder for many occasions throughout this span of distances.
He might be perpetually linked with the Liberation day highway race which he gained 14 occasions between 1957 and 1971 however his performances go far deeper than that and his different endeavours are chronicled effectively in Ray Hollis’ books masking the Historical past of Guernsey Athletics 1885 to 1963 and his second ebook 1964-2003. Dave’s profession spanned these two books and he was one of many few athletes often competing off-island on the time, certainly he briefly moved to Walton within the late Nineteen Fifties to additional his athletics profession. His early standout performances have been probably his 3 mile races, he raced this distance ceaselessly on the Hampshire Championships and have become the primary Guernsey runner under quarter-hour and finally under 14 minutes along with his 13:52.8 run in 1962. He arguably carried out at his peak in 1965 working 6 miles in 28:54.6 for County Bronze in April and in a while in August inserting eleventh within the AAA marathon at Port Talbot in 2:29.44 – all Guernsey data that will stand for 20 years or extra.
In his time he competed in opposition to rising British abilities equivalent to Dave Bedford and Ron Hill, with a number of on-island Hill vs. Kreckeler races being seen at Cambridge park within the Nineteen Sixties.
He was famend as a single minded and dedicated athlete which he maybe needed to be as a lot of his native races have been largely solo time-trials. It’s typically tough to separate delusion from truth however to those that met him the story of Dave racing throughout the Catelain backbone at L’Ancresse within the closing mile of a 9 ½ Mile double-full course ignoring the capturing competitors occurring round him “as a result of he was on for a great time” by some means rings true.
Dave was a personal man and appeared little concerned within the native athletics scene after his retirement however he did preserve an curiosity within the sport in addition to native historical past, he was a frequent customer to the Priaulx Library and an everyday letter-writer to the Guernsey Press on native historic issues. Via his ‘70s and ‘80s he nonetheless lower fairly an athletic determine at the same time as a pedestrian strolling the streets of St. Peter Port and lots of will recognise him because the spectator observing the end of the annual Liberation Day 7 mile run from close to his dwelling, on the backside of Paris Avenue close to Salarie nook, usually with a stop-watch in hand to maintain examine on the chief’s progress. Dave was immensely pleased with his 34:39 report run set in 1966 and died along with his report nonetheless intact greater than 56 years later.
