When Ethan Talbot cleared 6.54m in the 17 years long jump at the school's athletics carnival, he broke a record which had stood for an incredible 72 years.

John Reid's leap of 6.30m in 1949 looked unlikely to be beaten in his lifeline and the 88-year-old even used to phone the school to see if his mark still stood.

And the man who carried the Olympic torch during the relay ahead of the 1956 Melbourne Games was quick to learn of the breaking news.

"He rang Albury High to find out all about the record and who it was that broke it," Reid's son Martin said.

"He was pleased in one way that someone did it and disappointed in another that he'd finally lost it."

Talbot, who's previously competed at the Australian Junior Championships, was as surprised as anyone.

"I didn't even know what the record was," he admitted. "I was pretty happy with my jump but didn't find out I'd broken the record until the next day.

"It's a big accomplishment. I never thought I would break a record that had stood for that long."

Albury High School's House Cup is named in Reid's honour and although he now lives in Newcastle, his legend lives on.

"He was an outstanding athlete in the fifties," deputy principal Damian Toohey said.

"He would have been running on grass in those days, jumping off a wooden plank so it's a pretty amazing record in itself.

"It was even called broad jump when he was doing it and it's taken a national level athlete to beat him."

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Talbot's next competition will be the Albury zone carnival and he hopes to feature on the national stage again early next year.

"I'm training hard and my goal at the moment is to break the seven-metre barrier so I can get into the top-five ranking in Australia," Talbot said.

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