Mr Dobier had held the 1500m under-15 record at King’s High School since 1995.
Until one Caleb Dobier, the son of Tim, knocked the record off at this week’s school athletics championships.
Mr Dobier’s record was 4min 24sec and it had stayed as the record for 31 years.
But his son, coached by his father, set out to break it last Tuesday.
He lined up in the under-19 race — to get better competition — and though he was narrowly beaten, he still easily broke his father’s record.
Caleb, 14, recorded a time of 4min 21.85sec.
‘‘I had set out to break it. Something to aim for. I pretty much knew straight away I had broken it when I looked at my watch,’’ Caleb said.
It was not easy to do as the conditions were windy, making running difficult.
There were no hard feelings from father as a result of him scratching his record off the books. Mr Dobier witnessed his son setting the record and said it was great.
‘‘I was very proud. Not at all worried I had lost the record. He did so well and ran great.’’
Earlier in the day Caleb had broken the 800m record, held by Mark Metzger since 1978. Mr Metzger recorded 2min 9.2sec but Caleb went quicker with a time of 2min 7.59sec.
His father had him running about 60km a week, mostly on the track, and he was really enjoying it, Caleb said.
The year 10 student is in the top 10 for his age group nationally over all the middle distance events and won a national title in the 3000m steeplechase earlier this season.
Mr Dobier said his son was a good trainer and listener, and had a great attitude.
He said he remembered little of his 1995 record but had a good year, eventually winning a national title over Ben Ruthe, the father of young athletics star Sam Ruthe.
Caleb admitted he would be hard-pressed to get one over Sam Ruthe — this year anyway.
