After holding a record for close to 50 years, you might have forgiven Helen Clatworthy for not wanting to see her time broken.
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But when meeting St John’s primary school swimming star Aspen Moore on Monday, Clatworthy couldn’t have been more proud of the person who smashed her long-standing mark.
Moore broke Clatworthy’s girl’s open 100m freestyle time of 1:12:40, set in 1971, at the school’s swimming carnival last week.
Moore set a blistering new time of 1:09 flat, further enhancing her reputation as one of the region’s most exciting swimming prospects.
“I think it is fantastic,” Clatworthy said after making a special trip to the school to meet Moore.
“It’s exciting to see she’s so keen and she has really only just started swimming...she’s got a lot of talent.
...it’s fantastic that kids like Aspen are breaking records that are so old.
- Helen Clatworthy
“I’m astounded (the record stood so long) but going through the old program there is still a few left to go.”
The longest standing record at the school still remains, with Kim Harris setting a flying time back in one of his events in 1968.
But Clatworthy’s was one of the other milestone times, until Moore smashed it and set a sixth record of her own in the process.
Making the effort even the more impressive is the fact Moore has only been training properly for two years.
“It’s good for the kids and it’s fantastic that kids like Aspen are breaking records that are so old,” Clatworthy added.
“It’s exciting and it was 46 years (ago) so it is an old record.”
Both Moore and Clatworthy were even more delighted when discovering they both had been placed in the same house at St John’s Primary.
Clatworthy was a McAuley house competitor when setting the record back in 1971 and that is the same house as Moore, who despite her outstanding results couldn’t help her house claim the silverware at last week’s carnival.
“I laughed when I found out she was in McAuley, that was my house and when I said that to Aspen she quite liked that we were McAuley girls,” Clatworthy said.
It’s not only at school where Moore is setting stunning times.
The Western Area Championships and Speedo heats meet on the weekend was another competition in which she starred in.
Moore, much to the delight of Clatworthy, is just the latest in a long list of talented swimmers developed within the local Dubbo area.
“Over the years we’ve had some very, very good swimmers and I have to say I hope Aspen goes on to be the next one,” she said.
Clatworthy, someone who has stayed involved with swimming in Dubbo over the years, still fondly remembers setting the mark Moore beat back in her own school days.
The thing which stood out the most was the look of surprise on the face of her father, who was also her coach.
“I swam for Dubbo RSL and he was our club coach and he used to come down from work when he could to watch if there were a lot of us swimming,” she said.
“He was there and couldn’t believe it. I remember that.”