Gout Gout breaks magical 10-second barrier twice with two wind-assisted 100m stunners just hours apart
Gout Gout broke the magical 10-second barrier in a 100m heat at the Australian Athletics Championships. Then he did it again in the final. WATCH THE VIDEOS.
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ONLY two Australians had broken the magical 10-second 100m barrier in any conditions, Gout Gout did it twice in the space of two hours.
The remarkable 17-year-old clocked 9.99sec in the heat and then backed it up with the exact same time in the final of the U/20 100m at the national championships .
And unfortunately on both occasions there was an illegal tail wind - the final had a 2.6 metres per second tail wind - which meant Gout’s extraordinary feats won’t go into the official record books.
The Queensland schoolboy was unlucky given on both occasions the women’s U/20 100m heat and final, which were on five minutes prior to his race, recorded legal wind readings of +1.4 (Legal limit is +2.0).
And to add further to the frustration, Gout’s two races were the only two races for the entire day at WA Athletics Stadium which recorded illegal tail winds.
In the heat Gout shut down over the final 20m to go sub-10 with +3.5 tail wind. In the final he was slower out but went hard to the line to run exactly the same time.
Only Australian record holder Patrick Johnson (9.93sec legal) and Olympic semi-finalist Rohan Browning (9.96sec illegal +3.3 wind) have broken 10 seconds.
“It feels pretty good, those are the things you hope for and I said I would get sub-10, it happened now and I just have to keep doing it,” Gout said.
“Obviously not as good a start (in the final), that comes with my experience and comes with the conditions as well but I had a pretty good start in my opinion and kept powering through and got sub-10 as well.
“Sometimes it (the wind) is frustrating but you can’t control what you can’t control and the wind is obviously one of the things you can’t control, you just have to learn how to run with it and run against it.
“But I saw the clock, I saw it was another sub-10, I was happy, national champion and now just get prepared for the next race.”
The brilliant performance has given Gout extra confidence looking ahead to his preferred distance, the 200m on Sunday in the open men’s event where he will clash with Australia’s fastest man this year Lachlan Kennedy.
Kennedy, 21, upset Gout - who broke Peter Norman’s 56-year-old 200m Australian record in December - in his first open age race over 200m at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne two weeks ago.
“It definitely improves my confidence levels, sub-10 is what every sprinter hopes for and to get it this early in the season is definitely great,” Gout said.
“So just getting that sub-10 definitely boosts that confidence especially for my main event, the 200. Hopefully I will go faster but I guess we will find out on Sunday.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it because it is a great rivalry (with Kennedy).”
Once again the stands were packed and Ch 7 were broadcasting live - with the great Bruce McAvaney calling the race - because of the teenager who continues to thrive under the spotlight.
“This is what Australian athletics needs, this is what we wake up in the morning for, this is what we train for. I couldn’t ask for anything better. Great crowds, everyone getting around it and hopefully we get a lot more people.”
Originally published as Gout Gout breaks magical 10-second barrier twice with two wind-assisted 100m stunners just hours apart
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