The man affectionately known as ‘Deeks’ is the biggest name in Australian marathon running having won two Commonwealth Games gold medals, while he also finished fifth at the 1984 Olympics at Los Angeles.

It was a much more leisurely effort on Sunday when de Castella took part in the Dingo Dash, and he was a big hit among the huge crowd of roughly 1,700 that took on the 5.5km course.

“It’s wonderful, this is the first time I’ve been here for the event and it’s great to see the numbers of young kids, families and the serious runners. It’s very inclusive,” he said.

“It’s very unique and I don’t think there’s any event in the world like this, where you can run through a zoo and it’s a beautiful course and a challenging one.”

As well as a competitor, de Castella is also the patron of the Dubbo Stampede and on Saturday he took part in the Stampede Feed.

There he spoke about the importance of being active and taking part in events like Dubbo’s premier running festival.

There was roughly 2,500 competitors in total on Sunday and seeing the runners of the highest level rubbing shoulders with families and children walking the tracks was the most pleasing aspect of the whole day for de Castella.

“It’s good from an elite perspective and also a general community health perspective,” he said.

“Events like that are absolutely critical to health and well-being as a nation and regional areas like Dubbo, for the community to rally together like this and put on event and to see it so well supported by all the sponsors and the public, it’s a very successful event.”

As well as Stampede patron, de Castella was also at track to fulfill his role as the director of the Indigenous Marathon Project (IMP).

The IMP is something which has become a real success in Dubbo, with Nathan Riley a graduate of the program and now running his own team locally.

Riley worked closely with de Castella during his time in the program and it was largely due to the champion long distance runner’s training that he was able to successfully complete the New York City marathon in 2014.

“He (Riley) started his own running program here and he had a group of his own fellas running the 5.5km and 10km tracks and his dad and his uncle, who had never run it before, ran the 5.5km so it’s good to see it growing,” de Castella said.

“We also had Jacinta Smith-Robbins, who’s in the squad this year, from Bourke and she ran the half marathon as well so it’s a really successful day for the IMP.”