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Holding any sports record is a fine thing, but what if you’re guaranteed to have it forever?
This is the happy fate of former local swimming champ, Dennis Wilson, who returned briefly to Dubbo as part of a recent central west tour as the official partner (and husband) of NSW Governor, Her Excellency, the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC.
Mr Wilson is now a highly-regarded lawyer, mediator, and accredited international arbitrator, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Sydney’s Notre Dame University.
Before his storied career, though, Wilson was a record-breaking regional swimmer who even now holds the 33-metre record (in perpetuity) from the old RSL outdoor pool; achieving the feat during the famed Clive Roots Relay race!
However, that is not the only notable swim by the 1965 Boy School Captain from Dubbo High, who was also the 1965 champion swimmer for the whole western area of NSW.
A quick perusal of some newspaper clippings from the time reveals what a prolific, well-known, and popular local champ the American-born swimming speedster was.
One headline in the “Dubbo Liberal” from March 1964 – cataloguing his efforts in helping the Dubbo Diggers Swimming Club defeat the Dubbo Amateur Swimming Club in their annual match-up – has the sub-heading “Dennis Wilson Shines”.
At the same meet, another article noted that he also broke the 440-yard (400-metre) medley record in a time of just over six minutes.
In the March 1965 Liberal, he is photographed, hair still wet, after the Dubbo High swimming carnival where he again excelled, helping his team to victory at the event. The caption read: “Dubbo High School’s annual swimming carnival yesterday was won by Yarran House, whose house captains, Dennis Wilson and Robyn Petersen, are pictured here with their mascot, ‘Norray’ and the Yarran flag”.
In April of that year, his efforts were recognised when he was announced as “The Daily Liberal Sportsman of the Year”, with the caption reading “Wilson won the award for a great season in swimming”.
In January 1965 he is described as “Outstanding Dubbo swimmer Dennis Wilson,” and is again pictured in racing trunks after winning the 220-yards (200-metre) open freestyle race at the Nanima Cup swimming carnival at Wellington. To get to the final, he also notably beat world-record holder and Olympic gold medallist, Ian O’Brien, the 200-metre breaststroke winner at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Another Liberal article from March, 1967, lists the-then 19-year-old’s amazing achievement in being ranked among the top 10 freestyle swimmers in Australia with what is a still-impressive time of 57.1 seconds over the 100-metres event.
Indicating the exalted sporting company Wilson was in on the list, notably top of the table, was Liverpool’s Michael Wenden. An Australian Olympic legend, Wenden went on to hold a total of six world records over his career, winning two gold, one silver, and one bronze at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, famously defeating the greatest male swimmer of all-time, America’s Mark Spitz, in the 100-metre freestyle final.
As well as Wilson’s in perpetuity 33-metre Dubbo record, there are probably plenty of other towns with similar times that will never be bested.
Intermediate-length 331/3-yard pools were common across regional and suburban Australia as community and war memorial projects (and at boarding schools) during the post-World War II boom of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Before being superseded by standard eight-lane 50-metre Olympic pools, these six-lane facilities were often favoured due to cost savings, their comfortable lap-swimming length, and their near-perfect dimensions for water-polo.