Gout Gout mobbed on his arrival to Perth ahead of the Australian Athletics Championships
In scenes not seen since the Cathy Freeman era, Gout Gout has quickly realised his popularity as he prepares for the Australian Athletics Championships.
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Sitting in a bean bag facing the wall in a cordoned off area to escape the mob. Welcome to the world of Gout Gout.
Goutmania has hit Perth and caused mayhem at the Australian junior championships where the teenage sprint star is being feted like one of the Beatles.
On Monday he arrived in town and headed straight to the track where he presented some medals before it started; the autographs, the selfies, the family photos, the questions.
The demand for Gout got to the point where officials had to set up a table for him and have fans line up in 30-minute alloted slots to get their photos and autographs.
At one stage to avoid the mayhem, his coach Di Sheppard moved him to an athlete-only area where he was able to relax in a bean bag with his headphones on.
But even that wasn’t enough as he was then forced to literally turn and look at the wall so fans wouldn’t keep distracting him by getting in his line of sight.
These were scenes the old rusted-on athletics officials hadn’t seen since the Cathy Freeman era.
It was the same on Tuesday when Gout was back to watch his training partner Jonathan Kasiano claim silver (10.56sec) in the U/18 100m with his management team at one stage contemplating pulling him out just for his own sanity.
Thankfully the junior championships finished on Wednesday and Gout was able to focus on his own business which starts on Thursday in the U/20 100m where there is excitement around a potential sub-10sec performance.
What Gout would have seen in between his autograph duties earlier in the week was how fast the Perth track was.
He broke a record which had stood from the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in December – Peter Norman’s 200m record – and got to witness another Mexico record go, this time to 17-year-old Leah O’Brien.
Gout would be thinking; give me those conditions on Thursday and sub-10 is in the conversation.
Australia’s fastest man Lachlan Kennedy certainly took note. He ran 10.03sec in Perth last month and is going even better now.
He won’t clash with Gout over the 100m – the teenager is sticking to the U/20 age group – but will take on the likes of Olympic semi-finalist Rohan Browning in the senior 100m with the heats on Friday night.
All going to plan Kennedy wants to have a rematch with Gout in the senior 200m on Sunday afternoon.
The pair clashed at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne two weeks ago – which was Gout’s first race against men – and it went to Kennedy by a whisker 20.26sec to 20.30sec.
What a race! Kennedy destroys his personal best as he beats Gout to win the Men's 200m!
— 7Sport (@7Sport) March 29, 2025
Watch the full replay of the @AustralianAths Maurie Plant Meet on @7plus at https://t.co/IDgwLDvftWpic.twitter.com/1fVs7k2tvd
“I’m aiming for a sub-10 time for sure. In one of the rounds, I’ll do it and then I want to try and break the Australian record (Patrick Johnson’s 9.93sec) in the 100m and I really want to go for 19-seconds in the 200m,” Kennedy said.
“I think that’s more than possible, it’ll just be how my body can handle the rounds. I’m confident I can win the double. I mean, Gout is obviously incredible. He’s the Australian record at 17-years-old for a reason, it’s nuts. But that’s not going to stop me running with confidence now.
“It’ll be five races across three days so that’s obviously different to running one race at a Track Classic but If I’m good to go and I feel good, I will try my best to double up and I’m confident I can win both events.”
Such is the Gout hype and the excitement around Kennedy, Channel 7 are again on board after 1.2 million people tuned into the Maurie Plant meet when they showed it live on their main channel.
These championships are on 7plus with legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney again on hand. He called Freeman’s famous Olympic gold medal in Sydney and is blown away by what Gout is doing for the sport.
“With Gout, it’s so much about what he might do in Perth this weekend, at the Stawell Gift, at the World Championships in Tokyo this year, but the end game for him, for a lot of Australians, is Brisbane 2032,” McAvaney said.
“Cathy had all of that surrounding Sydney; she was already an Olympic silver medalist, had a great rivalry with Marie-Jose Peric, had all those things happening and that was a home Olympics.
“For this young fellow to have this much attention is unprecedented.”
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