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10-Year-Old Named Clark Kent Beats Michael Phelps' Record He's Held For 23 Years

10-Year-Old Named Clark Kent Beats Michael Phelps' Record He's Held For 23 Years

Clark broke the record for the 100m butterfly at the Far West International Championship, finishing with an incredible time of 1:09:38.

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

So there's a 10-year-old in the States whose name is actually Clark Kent. But the fact that his friends call him 'Superman' isn't even the coolest thing about him:

That's right, not content with having one of the most badass names on the planet, Clark Kent Apuada decided to do one better by breaking a world record set by Michael Phelps back in 1995.

Clark broke the record for the 100m butterfly at the Far West International Championship, finishing with an incredible time of 1:09:38.

Phelps' time stands at 1:10:48 (rubbish, eh?), and was a record that had gone unbroken for over 20 years. Thankfully he doesn't seem too miffed about being beaten by a 10-year-old, tweeting graciously:

"Most people just call me Clark, but now, when I beat Michael Phelps' record, they start calling me Superman," Clark told CBS.

"I thought to myself yeah if I had positive thoughts, positive things would happen."

"It's the coolest thing in the world because that's all he talked about," said Travis Rianda, who is Apuada's swim coach.

"It wasn't like, 'I want to be better than Michael Phelps,' or anything like that. His first goals were, 'I want to be a scientist, an Olympic gold medalist for the United States and I want to be a black belt.'

"He's on track for all three of those."

CBS

Clark, who swims for the Monterey County Aquatic Team in Salinas, California, has only been swimming competitively for four years. When he's not swimming, his dad says he also keeps himself busy with piano lessons, martial arts, computer classes, coding and STEM programs.

Speaking to CNN, Clark said that the load never gets too much for him.

"I deal with it really well, I just have to balance," he said.

"I love swimming because I have a lot of people supporting me and my coaches are always there for me and my parents are always there," Clark said.

He added: "Dream big, and always focus on your dreams and have fun."

Oh, he also won every other event he participated in, naturally.

How does it feel to know a 10-year-old is not only a world record holder, but also finds time for martial arts and computer coding? I mean, I barely manage to get my five-a-day... Fair play to the little LAD.

Featured Image Credit: Fox/PA

Topics: SPORT, World News, News, US News