Australian athletics royalty John Steffensen: Gout Gout ‘has the ability to become the next Usain Bolt’

Believe the hype. Sixteen-year-old sprint sensation Gout Gout ‘has the ability to become the next Usain Bolt’, according to an Australian sprint icon.

John Steffensen has declared Australia’s new sprint king Gout Gout a “legitimate world player” who can become the next Usain Bolt.

And Australian Athletics guru Craig Pickering says the teen sensation a technique reminiscent of the all-time great.

After watching the 16-year-old break Peter Norman’s 56-year-old national 200m record at the Australian All Schools Championships on Saturday, Steffensen is convinced the Queenslander has the world at his feet.

“He has the ability to become the next Usain Bolt and that is a very big, big statement to say,” Steffensen said.

“Based upon the times he has the ability. In Australia we have never seen this before and he is a legitimate world player.”

Steffensen, the 2006 Commonwealth 400m champion, is perfectly placed to make the comparison given he is a close personal friend of the eight-time Olympic champion and the point of contact when Bolt has visited Down Under.

Gout’s stunning 20.04sec performance – which took .02sec off Norman’s record set in winning the silver medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympics – is faster than what Bolt ran when he was 16.

The Queensland teenager also lowered Bolt’s world junior championships record for a 16-year-old in winning the silver medal in August in Peru.

Gout Gout put the world on notice with his 200m National Record time. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Steffensen said the viral videos of Gout – the first in March has had more than 1 million views – meant the rest of the world was aware of his freakish talents.

“I have had a lot of guys reach out to me, international guys who send me the videos and are like, ‘Damn, this kid is the chosen one’,” he said.

“I think what they are seeing is not just a random kid running fast, he has been running fast for a number of years and I think they are seeing that this kid is legit.

“They are looking at him technically and his African genetics, putting the whole package together and going, ‘Oh hang on, this kid could be here to stay and how the hell has Australia got him?’.

“He is phenomenal and I love the way he runs. Technically he has got a beautiful running gait, the fast twitch and nervous system God gave that kid, I haven’t seen before.”

Steffensen, who won a silver medal in the 4x400m relay at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, also warned there would be a plateau for Gout at some point which is what happened to Bolt.

The great Jamaican was the world junior 200m champion in 2002 yet struggled to make the progression into the senior ranks with injuries a factor which saw him run out in the first round of the 2004 Athens Olympics and then finish last in the world championships 200m final in 2005.

“The reality is junior running and pro running are two different ball games,” Steffensen said. “What I would like to see with him is he gets wrapped up in cotton wool and doesn’t get exposed to senior running any time soon.

“He needs to keep learning and acquiring skills, I’m not knocking the kid because he is a beast but people forget that Usain had a tough few years post world juniors.

Usain Bolt and John Steffensen. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

“You look at how many years that he was running 19 seconds as a young kid to then becoming Usain Bolt in ‘08. There is a lot he had to learn in those four years to become the next best thing.”

Gout will run against the senior men in the 200m at the Australian championships next year with an eye to competing in the world championships in Tokyo in September.

He won’t run in the 100m in the open age – he did run an illegal wind-assisted 10.04sec in Friday’s heats – and in 2026 is likely to focus on the world junior championships rather than compete at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

TECHNIQUE TO MATCH THE KING

Gout’s technical similarities to Bolt are the reason he’s now Australia’s fastest 200m runner in history.

The 16-year-old’s long stride and tall running style has experts excited that he has the tools to follow a similar path to greatness as the eight-time Olympic champion.

Former Great Britain sprinter Craig Pickering – a world championships 4x100m relay bronze medallist – now works as Athletics Australia director of performance sustainability and was with Gout at this year’s world junior championships in Peru where he won the 200m silver medal.

He describes Gout as an “unbelievably smooth runner” which makes him so efficient in the same way as Bolt.

Gout Gout and Usain Bolt side by side

“If you view sprinting like a maths problem whereby if you take this many steps per second and each step is of a fair distance then you will be quick,” Pickering said.

“He (Gout) is able to do that much better than other people. The main thing is literally how long your legs are.

“Gout has got the build for it, he’s tall, his legs are relatively long compared to the rest of his body which helps and he then will have the ability to produce the force necessary to get the height with each step to cover the distance.

“Usain Bolt took slightly fewer steps than everyone else but because he covered much more distance per step he was very quick.

“Gout is also very relaxed and he has that long stride which helps him be really efficient.”

Pickering compares the Queensland teenager to another prodigious talent he raced against in England, Mark Lewis-Francis who won an Olympic gold medal in the 4x100m relay in Athens 2004.

Pickering sees similarities between Gout Gout’s rise and that of' Mark Lewis-Francis in the 2000s. Picture: Gabriel Bouys/AFP Photo

He (Lewis-Francis) broke the British records at every age so he is probably the most similar person but if you were critical of Mark it was that he almost had too much too soon,” Pickering said.

“He won everything and never had the need to learn.”

Pickering said after spending time with Gout at the world junior championships in Peru in August he was confident he had the attitude to make it to the top.

“The concern when you have got athletes that are very good very young is they are easily distracted and he (Gout) absolutely wasn’t,” he said.

“He was very relaxed with a very strong focus on what he wanted to achieve. He also has a level of confidence, not arrogant at all, but he’s confident in his ability.

“The most impressive thing I saw was the mindset he had which I thought was really good particularly given his age.

“I think that will set him apart from others in a couple of years.”

Originally published as Australian athletics royalty John Steffensen: Gout Gout ‘has the ability to become the next Usain Bolt’