‘He looks like young me’: Usain Bolt comments on Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout
Gout Gout passed Peter Norman’s long-standing 200m record on the weekend, and his family is delighted to pass the torch - while Usain Bolt himself has taken notice of Australia’s big new thing.
Athletics
Don't miss out on the headlines from Athletics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Peter Norman’s daughter wasn’t surprised and couldn’t have been happier as she watched Gout Gout break her father’s 56 year-old Australian 200m record.
Sandra Kadri was at home in Echuca glued to the livestream of the Australian All Schools Championships on Saturday when the 16-year-old from Queensland clocked an incredible 20.04sec to break her father’s record by just 0.02sec.
“It was an absolutely awesome achievement,” Kadri said. “We’ve been watching Gout for a couple of years now, we knew he’d been taking, not just bits off his time, but absolute chunks off his 200m time.
“I did make a point of knowing and have kept a keen eye on the men’s 200, not often the U/18s I have to admit as generally focussing on the opens because they are the ones who have been closest in recent years.
“Dad did definitely see records being broken as part of athletics progressing and was very keen to see that particularly in Australia.
“It’s awesome that such an exciting new talent is the one. I am more than happy, as is the family, as we have been dangling that baton since Dad died 18 years ago for someone to grab it and absolutely run with it.
“So we are more than happy to let the spotlight chase him (Gout) now.”
Norman set the record winning the silver medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and famously shared the dais with Tommie Smith and John Carlos as they performed a human rights salute with the Australian wearing a badge on his tracksuit supporting it.
So having a teenager of South Sudanese heritage taking over the record is something Norman would have been proud of according to his daughter.
“That’s not lost on the family at all and obviously not lost on a lot of the wider community,” Kadri said. “He’s also a religious gentleman as well so there are parallels that can be drawn from all sorts of different angles.
“It’s just really awesome and I absolutely wish him, his team and family every success that he is aiming for. Being a fan of athletics myself I do hope he stays in athletics and achieves all the goals he sets.”
And he will be achieving it with the name Gout Gout despite speculation over the weekend his family was thinking of changing it
His father, Bona, had told the story of how the family name had been misspelt when they were fleeing South Sudan for Egypt and it should be pronounced “Gwot”.
Which means the sprint star would be “Gwot Gwot” but the rising star’s camp has moved quickly to clarify the confusion, saying there will definitely be no name change.
BOLT WEIGHS IN ON TEEN SENSATION
Everyone else has been talking about it and now the man himself, Usain Bolt, has agreed that Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout is a mini-me.
The fastest man in history delivered a powerful five-word statement about the 16-year-old Queenslander, who on Saturday broke Peter Norman’s 56-year-old national 200m record.
Gout is running faster than Bolt did at 16 and the eight-time Olympic champion commented on a post about the Australian’s amazing achievement to Jumpers World.
They had posted a picture of Gout flexing his biceps with the winning time of 20.04sec alongside the comment: “He is out of this world.”
To which Bolt simply replied: “He looks like young me.”
Gout reposted the photo to his Instagram story with a fire emoji.
He has already taken one of Bolt’s junior records, with his 20.60sec time as a 16-year-old in winning the silver medal at the world junior championships in August bettering the great Jamaican’s mark.
Bolt’s good friend John Steffensen has labelled Gout a “legitimate world player” and said he was on the trajectory to be the next sprint superstar.
“He has the ability to become the next Usain Bolt and that is a very big, big statement to say,” Steffensen said. “Based upon times, he has the ability.
“In Australia we have never seen this before and he is a legitimate world player.”
Gout is travelling to the US next month to work out with reigning Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles at his training base near Orlando.
Since his record-breaking performance Gout’s popularity has soared with his Instagram following almost doubling, now up to 75,000.
More Coverage
Originally published as ‘He looks like young me’: Usain Bolt comments on Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout
‘Disgraceful’: Gout Gout blunder savaged
Teenage sensation Gout Gout may be the biggest Australian star on the planet, but he was inexplicably mistaken in a glaring error.
‘Women and girls deserve better’: Jenkins ‘not surprised’ by abuse allegations
The most powerful woman in Australian sports, says she ‘wasn’t surprised’ after reading the abuse allegations against a former Olympic coach, but Kate Jenkins admits it still struck a nerve.