Courageous Power a warrior for all seasons

On Athletics:I lived for a while in Providence, Rhode Island, studying hard but training a lot harder, and it was during that time I first came across the Clare athlete Séamus Power. We both ran in the 1992 NCAA cross-country championships in Bloomington, Indiana, and though I was running for Brown University and Power for East Tennessee we felt an immediate bond - two Irish youngsters dreaming about making the big time.

It was a daunting race, but Power went up with the leaders from the gun, believing he could win, while I held back, not nearly as ambitious. Around the halfway point I passed Power, who had obviously "blown up", as we say in distance running. While I went on to finish 56th, Power ended up way back in 139th.

Five years later we raced together again at the National Interclubs cross-country at Whitechurch, Cork. Once more Power went up with the leaders, only this time he pulled away to win his first title (I honestly don't remember where I finished). By then it was clear why Power was going to be a great champion of cross-country running, and I wasn't.

Not just a tough and fearless runner, Power also has an enormous hunger for victory - and an enormous belief he can achieve it. All this without any ego whatsoever. "I've got the armour on, and I'm ready for battle," he often says before races, and Power, for sure, runs like a warrior. He trains like a warrior too, knowing "pain is weakness leaving the body".

He was born into the perfect training environment, the hilly countryside around the family dairy farm at Kildysart, overlooking the Shannon. He says he never noticed those hills out running until Dublin's Peter Mathews, his regular training partner, visited one weekend and nearly killed himself to get over them.

From this background Power built up a cross-country CV over the past decade that is unrivalled. Ireland may have had bigger stars in John Treacy and Catherina McKiernan, but none have dominated the sport at home as Power has. He won three more Interclub titles, in 2000, 2001 and 2004, ran a dozen times for Ireland at the world cross-country, finishing as high as 44th, and in 2000 helped the Irish team to bronze medals at the European cross-country.

He's no slouch on the track either, twice winning national 5,000- and 10,000-metre titles.

Rarely has his fearlessness backfired as it did that day in Bloomington, though his first attempt at the marathon, in Dublin in 1998, came undone in the last mile when he literally collapsed on the final turn entering O'Connell Street.

Yet it's the National Intercounties where Power has best displayed his true qualities. His streak of nine consecutive titles from 1995 to 2003 won't be surpassed - not soon anyway.

The sequence ended in 2004 when he finally succumbed to a back injury, and since then Power has been on a mission to win title number 10 - not through greed, but as a sort of tribute to those who most influenced his career.

Three years ago, over Christmas, his father, James, died from cancer, and that difficult time put running in a new perspective.

His younger brother, Dermot, shared his great passion for running, and together they plotted another crack at the Intercounties title. Dermot had always been Séamus's closest mentor and would frequently drive the tractor alongside him during training runs. Within a year, however, he too was dead, aged just 33, the victim of a brain tumour, and leaving behind his wife, Róisín, and their three-month-old baby, Keelin.

One of Power's bravest performances came at the funeral in Coolmeen church in January of last year, when he spoke, chest heaving, of his deep love for Dermot, who until the end had encouraged him to try for another Intercounties.

Power had left his job in Dublin and returned to the farm to help his mother, Helena, but he never gave up on the dying wish of his brother.

It took some time after Dermot's death before he got back to full training, and as last year's Intercounties approached, Power was back in good shape. Then a week before the race he pulled a hamstring. He shouldn't have run, but he knew he had to, and with typical courage he still ended up seventh.

At 36 Power was running out of time to win another title. Working on the farm made it increasingly difficult to balance the training.

And then, three weeks ago, he was leading a cow into a box when it kicked a gate into his face, breaking his nose and fracturing a hand.

The cast came off on Thursday, and while he reckons the nose has never looked better, his fitness has suffered even further.

As another cross-country season gets underway Power would dearly love to line up for the Intercounties in two months' time. But he realises now it's not to be. Just too many distractions. This week he also sent off 14 of his herd of 32 cows for slaughter, all struck with TB.

He's being compensated with 1,000 per animal, and the cheapest replacements he can find are €1,600. The cow that smacked him in the face was one of the survivors.

"Sure these are all just the little knocks," he says. "You recover from them. But the bigger knocks, I don't think you ever recover from."

That's the difference between sport's knocks, and life's knocks, in case anyone needs reminding.