By Michael Gleeson
They came for Gout Gout. Gout came out for them. But unfortunately for Gout, Lachie Kennedy came for him.
Gout, the teen prodigy men’s 200-metre record holder was beaten. And the crowd gasped.
Lachie Kennedy, the sprint star who won the 100m earlier in the night, just a week after winning sprint silver at the world indoor championships continued his form and turned gatecrasher for Gout’s party – beating the schoolboy sensation in 20.26 seconds to a fast finishing Gout’s 20.30.
Lachie Kennedy pipped Gout Gout at the post on a stunning night for Australian athletics.Credit: Luke Hemer
Gout was closing fast and, as Kennedy said afterwards, just a few more metres of track and Gout would have had him. But Kennedy – an incredibly explosive starter – left Gout, a notoriously sluggish starter, with too much work to do in the home straight.
“People will say, winning feels great, second is bad. And today feels even worse,” Gout said post-race.
“So, coming second is something you can experience, and it definitely puts fuel to the fire and it lights that burn. So when I get into training, [I’ll] work even harder and be better for nationals.
“My closing speed is my gift, so it’s definitely just about building my first 100.”
The stunning finish to the Peter Norman Memorial 200 metres at Albert Park.Credit: Seven Network
Even though he is also just 21, and he won the race, and he won after winning the 100m three hours earlier, and he won that after winning a world sprint silver medal a week ago, Kennedy was still on this night playing second fiddle. He understood the role he was given, which didn’t mean he was going to accept it. He is more than just the Washington Generals in this arrangement.
“I just wanted to give everyone a good race,” said Kennedy.
“It wouldn’t be fun if he just destroyed everyone.
“I’m sorry if I did spoil it a little bit, but what a great race.
“You can’t be upset about watching something like that.”
In the Peter Norman Memorial race, Gout was racing against men for the first time since his stunning schoolboy performance in breaking, fittingly, the Peter Norman 200m record.
They came in their thousands to see him – 10,000 filled Lakeside Stadium. If it were the AFL, they’d call it retro round – the time when Cathy was queen and athletics was cool.
Everything was almost right. The weather was warm, not hot. The stands were full. Bruce McAvaney was commentating.
Kennedy also beat Rohan Browning in the men’s 100 metres in front of 10,000 people at Lakeside Stadium.Credit: Luke Hemer
There were great athletes competing on the night, but there was one man who had filled the stands — Gout.
He is still 17 but already the biggest thing in the sport. He has the under-16, -18, -20 and open-age 200m records. He is the world junior silver medallist and was only beaten by a kid, well, man, 18 months older than him.
Gout Gout was the man they all came to see at Lakeside Stadium.Credit: Luke Hemer
The only thing missing on the night was winning.
“I mean, it’s great. This is what you live for – this environment, the high, the people, the expectations, the pressure. I mean, this is sport right? So this is what I go to train every day for,” Gout said.
Earlier in the night the only disappointment was the coveted time we so dearly hoped would flash on the screen for the men’s 100m, a figure that might start with a nine, started with an obstinate 10.
Where for the women’s 100m there was a slight tailwind, by the time of the men’s race was run five minutes later it was a slight headwind. Just -1.1 metres per second, but it is enough when the margins are so wafer-thin.
For Kennedy who felt, with the right conditions, he might break 10 seconds on any track, this was not the night for those sorts of historic heroics, but he did claim the win.
A powerful starter, which is unsurprising for a man who just won world silver over 60 metres, Kennedy jumped the field and was never headed. He won in 10.17s from Seb Sultana in 10.29.
Gout Gout on the night of his first 200-metre race against men.Credit: Luke Hemer
The teasing thing of the night was that Letsile Tebogo, the Paris Olympics 200m gold medallist, was not here to run the 200m, and therefore running against Gout. He was running the 400m. So, yeah, it was nice to see him run, but it’s like going to see Pat Cummins play and he decides to bowl off-spin.
Still Tebogo, and his Botswana teammates put on a show with Bayapo Ndori (45.14s) stealing the moment from Tebogo, who could not quite rein him in, coming in second in 45.26s.
“Australian athletics is really popping off – everyone is running quick and everyone wants to put on a show,” Sultana said after coming second to Kennedy in the 100m.
Popping off, indeed. It was the biggest domestic athletics meet since 2001, with standing room-only at the sellout crowd at Lakeside.
Among that packed crowd to witness Gout run live in Melbourne against men was athletics royalty, Sydney Olympic 400m gold medallist Cathy Freeman.
Young star Cam Myers who two years ago as a 16-year-old here became the second-youngest person in the world to break the four-minute mile. Now, just 18 he has turned schoolboy potential into consistent elite performer winning the John Landy in 3:34.98, defeating Commonwealth Champion Ollie Hoare in the process. Hoare finished fourth in 3:36.48.
Torrie Lewis, the national 100m record holder, who has moved to the Netherlands to train most of the year with Femke Bol, had come back and competed in the 200m. She ran a good 120m, but then the track got big. She trailed into fifth place (23.60s) with Kristie Edwards running an impressive 23.18s to win from emerging Victorian sprinter Jess Milat in second in 23.36s.
In the women’s 100m race run earlier, Paris Olympics semi-finalist Bree Rizzo (nee Masters) won the women’s comfortably in 11.35s.
After a slow start, Rizzo, who was the first Australian woman to make an Olympic semi-final in 24 years when she advanced from the heats in Paris, had too much class for the field, beating Chloe Mannix-Power who ran 11.52s.
Eleanor Patterson, fresh of her silver medal at the world indoors, breezed through the high jump, basically competing against herself. She cleared 1.94m, which is par for her at any event. She is trying to make 1.97m her minimum jump, but this was not the night to go chasing too much. The next best jumper was eight centimetres lower.
World championships bronze medallist Mackenzie Little was upstaged in the javelin, finishing second with a throw of 59.66m behind Lianna Davidson with 61.66m.
Paris Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny won the discus with a throw of 68.17m, nearly four metres further than British thrower Lawrence Okoye.
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