PHIL JARRATT
Dave Power, who died in Noosa last weekend at 85, won Olympic and Commonwealth medals for Australia as a distance runner, plus numerous NSW and Australian marathon championships, but to me he will always be a hero because when he wasn’t winning races, he was behind the teller’s window at my local bank, getting on with life, putting food on the table for his family.
That’s the way it was for elite athletes back then, more than half a century ago. When he went away to represent his country, Dave had to take unpaid leave, but that didn’t stop him representing at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, 1960 Rome Olympics (where he won a career best bronze in the 10K), 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games and 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games, where he won two silver medals. Later, he had another great career as a senior road runner.
A disciple of Percy Cerrutty’s unorthodox training methods, Dave would prepare for a big event by running up and down the sand hills behind the beach where I was learning to surf. A local hero of humble disposition, he would always respond to a wave.
In the 1980s Dave moved to Noosa, where he worked in real estate and was one of the people who helped create the Noosa Triathlon, born of Dave’s original desire to run a marathon here. Dave died peacefully after a long illness. His funeral will be held at the Catholic Church, Tewantin, at 11am today.
