Gout Gout eliminated in Stawell Gift semi-final by South Australia’s John Evans

Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout could potentially be the nation’s greatest ever, but not even he could overcome the Stawell Gift handicapper.

He ran his heart out but not even the greatest sprinter Australia has potentially ever seen could beat the Stawell Gift handicapper.

Gout Gout found out what pro running was all about in his first visit to Australia’s richest, and oldest, footrace.

Since its first running in 1878, the Gift has been all about runners setting themselves – for some that means hiding their best performances to get a luxury mark from the handicapper – for the Easter weekend.

With Gout off 1m, he was always going to face a task to catch runners who were more than eight metres ahead of him on a grass track, with rain and a strong headwind on Monday adding to the degree of difficulty.

In the end the 17-year-old ran into a pro runner at the peak of his powers in John Evans, a 28-year-old secondary school teacher from South Australia who was competing in his sixth Stawell Gift.

Gout Gout was in high spirits despite the loss. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

The moons had aligned for him this year – he’d been impressive throughout the pro season winning the Terang Gift off 9m and the Geelong Gift – with the result of his work being a winnable mark of 9.75m for Stawell.

To Evans’ credit after just holding off Gout in the semi-final, he again improved in the final an hour later clocking a super-fast 11.94sec to claim the $40,000 winner’s cheque.

Gout was unlucky to draw Evans – who was backed into $3.50 after running the fastest heat (12.13sec) on Saturday – in his semi-final but unfortunately his winning heat time (12.31sec) was ranked the 12th fastest.

Under the Gift rules the seedings on times for the semi-finals match 1st with 12th, then 2nd with 11th and so on.

“I thought I was coming pretty hard and when we came with 20m left he (Evans) was pretty ahead of me, so I tried my hardest there and he got me at the end. It is what it is, a good run,” Gout, who ran second in 12.34sec compared to Evans’ 12.10sec, said.

Lachlan Kennedy also missed the final. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

Kennedy couldn’t catch Dash Muir. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images

The 120m at Central Park wasn’t quite long enough for the Australian 200m champion who’d clocked an incredible wind-assisted 19.84sec in Perth last weekend.

Lachlan Kennedy, Australia’s second fastest man in history, also came up just short in his semi-final.

Running off 0.25m, he clocked an impressive 12.23sec but just missed catching 17-year-old Williamstown high school student Dash Muir (7.75m) who ran 12.18sec.

“I just ran the best I could. I mean, he (Muir) ran a great race. It was close in the end but I didn’t have enough today,” Kennedy said.

“He definitely had a healthy bit on me (with the mark) but I knew I’d have to run a pretty much perfect race to get him but he killed it out there.”

Evans ran a perfect race in the final and crashed to the turf as he lunged at the finish line, picking himself up instantly to roar at the crowd. Jasper Thomas (6.5m) was second with Mitchell O’Neill (4.75m) third.

John Evans embraces coach Paul Young, Australia. Picture: Maya Thompson/Getty Images

Forty years ago Evans’ coach Paul Young had won the Gift off 10.75m. He then turned to coaching but had come agonisingly close a number of times before Evans finally delivered for him.

“It’s been 27 years as coach, all the hype around Gout I thought, ‘Well, I started coaching 10 years before you were born, young man, can you just wait a little bit while, maybe another year, just give me the chance to win this one’,” Young said.

“I don’t know how I feel now. I’ve had enough tears during the week just thinking about it as I know I’ve got one hand on it, this bloke (Evans) is extraordinary. He’s got the resilience, he’s got the toughness, he’s got the mental heart, just capacity to handle the pressure.

“He’s been nine years in the industry, he was an athlete of the year in his first year ... he’s never non-tried, he’s never budged his mark or anything.

“He tries every time he runs and the handicapper, to his credit, has finally just gave him that little window of opportunity to have a crack.

“That gave him confidence and he’s improved as a consequence. He’s finally been able to improve beyond that and I’m staggered by the (winning) time.”

John Evans won the Stawell Gift. Picture: Martin KEEP / AFP

On his handicap, Evans said: “Look, I knew it was a good handicap. I knew I could work something off of that, and I just really had to train hard, push hard and see what I could do from it.”

While he’d been stressed after drawing Gout in the semi-final, racing against the emerging superstar was an experience he would cherish for a long time.

“I knew that Gout Gout was going to be right there at the finish line so at the finish I looked across and saw him next to me,” Evans said.

“I was like, in one or two more steps he would have had me but it’s pretty exciting though, racing against Gout Gout.

“I just run pros and I’m not going to be running against the likes of Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy again. So it’s a fantastic opportunity and I get to tell my kids I did that now . . . and that I beat him.”

Originally published as Gout Gout eliminated in Stawell Gift semi-final by South Australia’s John Evans