We are sad to report the death of David (Dave) Kreckeler.
Dave was arguably the leading athlete, and certainly the leading endurance runner in the first 25 years of the life of the Guernsey Island AAC and performed primarily in events from 1 mile to the Marathon, he retired his athletic career in 1971 as the Guernsey record holder for most events across this span of distances.
He will be forever linked with the Liberation day road race which he won 14 times between 1957 and 1971 but his performances go far deeper than that and his other endeavours are chronicled well in Ray Hollis’ books covering the History of Guernsey Athletics 1885 to 1963 and his second book 1964-2003. Dave’s career spanned these two books and he was one of the few athletes regularly competing off-island at the time, indeed he temporarily moved to Walton in the late 1950s to further his athletics career. His early standout performances were possibly his 3 mile races, he raced this distance frequently at the Hampshire Championships and became the first Guernsey runner below 15 minutes and ultimately below 14 minutes with his 13:52.8 run in 1962. He arguably performed at his peak in 1965 running 6 miles in 28:54.6 for County Bronze in April and later on in August placing 11th in the AAA marathon at Port Talbot in 2:29.44 – all Guernsey records that would stand for 20 years or more.
In his time he competed against emerging British talents such as Dave Bedford and Ron Hill, with several on-island Hill vs. Kreckeler races being seen at Cambridge park in the 1960s.
He was renowned as a single minded and committed athlete which he perhaps had to be as many of his local races were largely solo time-trials. It is sometimes difficult to separate myth from fact but to those who met him the tale of Dave racing across the Catelain spine at L’Ancresse in the final mile of a 9 ½ Mile double-full course ignoring the shooting competition going on around him “because he was on for a good time” somehow rings true.
Dave was a private man and appeared little involved in the local athletics scene after his retirement but he did maintain an interest in the sport as well as local history, he was a frequent visitor to the Priaulx Library and a regular letter-writer to the Guernsey Press on local historical matters. Through his ‘70s and ‘80s he still cut quite an athletic figure even as a pedestrian walking the streets of St. Peter Port and many will recognise him as the spectator observing the finish of the annual Liberation Day 7 mile run from near his home, at the bottom of Paris Street near Salarie corner, normally with a stop-watch in hand to keep check on the leader’s progress. Dave was immensely proud of his 34:39 record run set in 1966 and died with his record still intact more than 56 years later.