Gout breaks 10-second mark in 100m – twice – with illegal tailwind

Lightning doesn’t strike twice, but Gout Gout did. The schoolboy phenomenon broke 10 seconds over 100 metres twice just two hours apart at the national championships in Perth – but cruelly, the wind at his back was too strong for it to count.

Only two Australian men had broken 10 seconds in any conditions - wind at their back or not - Gout did it twice in hours.

Twice on Thursday, he ran 9.99s, in the under-20 100m heat and final. Twice, the wind gusted up over the legal threshold for his time to count officially. Twice, the women’s races held just minutes earlier had a comfortably legal wind.

Anything more than +2 metres per second means the wind is too strong to be considered legal; Gout ran the heat with +3.3 and the final +2.6.

“It feels pretty good. I mean, they are the things you hope for [to run sub-10 seconds],” Gout said after the final.

“I said I’ll get sub-10 and I have done it now, so I have just got to keep doing it.”

Gout is just 17, but he is one of only three Australian men of any age to run sub-10 seconds for the 100m in any conditions. Patrick Johnson, who ran 9.93 in 2003 in Japan, is the only Australian male to have legally broken 10s, while Rohan Browning ran 9.96s in 2021 with a +3.3 wind at his back.

“I mean, sometimes it’s frustrating, but you know, you can’t control what you can’t control, and the wind is obviously a thing you can’t control. You’ve got to learn to run with it, to run against it,” Gout said.

Earlier in the night, in warmer conditions and with the sun out, when he ran under 10 seconds with a +3.3 wind at his back in the heat, Gout had shut down 30 metres from the line. Not so in the final, when he was flying at the line and had time to glance at the clock and start celebrating.

“I saw the clock, I saw another sub-10. I was happy, national champion,” Gout said.

He will now focus on the 200m, his preferred event and the distance for which he broke Peter Norman’s record from the Mexico Olympics in December last year. He will race in the open field for the 200m, rather than the under-ages, for which he is still eligible.

He will take on Lachie Kennedy, the sprint star who beat him by 0.04s in Melbourne at the Maurie Plant Meet a fortnight ago.

“Hopefully I’ll go faster, but I guess we’ll find out on Sunday,” Gout said.

“It definitely boosts my confidence.”

Frustratingly, given his time and how close he was to officially breaking 10 seconds, the wind was a legal +1.4 for both of the women’s 100m heat and final held five minutes prior to Gout’s races.

Gout’s efforts, which looked effortless, suggest that it is only a matter of time before he gets the coveted time. Remember he is still just 17 and was at school all week doing year 12.

Forget the wind, Gout has proven he can roll his legs over to get down the track in less than 10 seconds.

“It doesn’t feel very special because this is the stuff you have to do to get to the next level, sub-10 was inevitable, it happened today so I’m hoping it can happen again,” he said after the heat

Despite his age, Gout is reaching the point where nothing he does is surprising.

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