Gout Gout breaks 20 seconds in stunning 200m final at Australian Championships
Gout Gout has produced one of the most astonishing races seen on Australian soil, clocking 19.84sec in the 200m to best the time Usain Bolt ran at the same age. WATCH THE VIDEO
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Watch out world, Goutmania is coming.
In one of most astonishing races ever seen on Australian soil, 17-year-old Gout Gout clocked an incredible 19.84sec in the 200m national final which is faster than Usain Bolt ran at the same age.
But unfortunately there will be an asterisk next to the time in the record books given it was run with an illegal tail wind of 2.2 metres per second which is agonisingly just over the 2.0 limit.
Gout’s performance elevates him into a different stratosphere, alongside the likes of Bolt and Olympic champion Noah Lyles when comparing what they were doing at the same age.
Bolt, the greatest sprinter in history, ran 19.93sec at 17. American Erriyon Knighton holds the fastest time for a 17-year-old in the 200m, running 19.49sec in 2022.
Not even two false starts — the first which saw Gout’s arch rival Lachlan Kennedy get disqualified — could rattle the Queensland schoolboy.
“It feels great, 19.84, so just getting more sub-20 is definitely great,” Gout said.
“I didn’t feel it (the wind) went too much but you know obviously it was 2.2 but I didn’t feel too much. I just used it to my advantage. I guess I took off, got my flick, and just sent it down the home straight.
“I mean, it’s definitely frustrating. I run fast times but the wind is not on my side. But I guess it’s just getting those nice runs and then hopefully one day the wind would be great.”
Cruelly he did have a legal wind of +0.6 in the heat — two hours before the final — where he jogged to the line in 20.21sec.
The wind again wasn’t his friend on Thursday night when Gout became just the third Australian to break the magical 10-second 100m barrier.
He clocked 9.99sec in the heat and final but the wind was again illegal: +2.6 in the under-20 100m final.
Gout’s coach Di Sheppard told him when she first saw him at Ipswich Grammar School that he would be an Olympic champion and the teenager knows that ticking off the sub-20 box is an important step to getting to that goal.
He broke Peter Norman’s long-standing open 200m record from the 1968 Mexico Olympics when he ran 20.04sec at the Australian All Schools Championships in December.
“This is the steps we take to the top, you know. And this is the steps I have to take to potentially become world champion, Olympic champion,” Gout said.
“So if I can get these little steps, focus on the little things, I think I can take it far.”
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He said he’d felt nervous all week and then had to control his emotions again when Kennedy, who defeated Gout over 200m at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne two weeks ago, was disqualified.
“I was very disappointed, you know, because our plan was to send it down, to send it around the bend and then hopefully we could hold on for both sub 20,” Gout said.
“But I mean stuff like that happens, and unfortunately he false-started ... he’s (Kennedy) a fellow Queenslander. I’ve been racing against him in shield events and things of that nature.
“The rivalry is definitely great. And just the camaraderie we have amongst all this sprinters front is definitely great and something that will continue to be even greater for sure.
“At times it gets daunting (racing against men), they are like 10 or four years old than me. It definitely daunts me but at the end of the day, we all bleed red and we’re all human so as soon as we step onto the track age doesn’t matter, it’s all about speed.”
Gout and Kennedy will clash again over the Easter weekend at the prestigious Stawell Gift in Victoria.
Originally published as Gout Gout breaks 20 seconds in stunning 200m final at Australian Championships
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