The teacher who beat schoolboy Gout in the semis also won the Stawell Gift

John Evans isn’t sure what the bigger achievement will be – telling his kids he won the Stawell Gift, or telling them that the day he did it, he beat Gout Gout?

This year’s Stawell Gift had been all about Australia’s phenomenon Gout, who had come to the western district town for Australia’s richest footrace – and brought about 7000 fans into Central Park, double last year’s attendance.

John Evans celebrates his win.Credit: Getty Images

But on Monday, the schoolboy was beaten by a school teacher.

Gout, who is in year 12, was beaten in the semi-final by eventual Gift winner Evans, a 28-year-old high school teacher from South Australia. Evans, whose coach, Paul Young, won the race 40 years ago, won the final in 11.94 seconds from his 9.75-metre handicap. Gout had been running with a 0.25m start.

“I knew that Gout Gout was gonna be right there at the finish line. So once I finished, I looked across and just saw him next to me. I was like, ‘Oh, if there’s one or two more steps he would have had me’,” Evans said.

“It’s pretty exciting though, you know, racing against Gout Gout. I just run pros and I’m not going to be running against the likes of Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy again, so it’s a fantastic opportunity, and I get to tell my kids I did that now.”

And beat him.

Gout Gout finished second in his semi-final of the Stawell Gift.Credit: Luke Hemer

“It means a hell of a lot [to win]. It’s absolutely fantastic. I’ve been dreaming of this for a very, very long time, or from the beginning of the year, Paul Young and I came up with a bit of a plan to put us in the position to win.”

Jasper Thomas (6.5m) was second in 12.07s from Mitch O’Neil in 12.11. Josh Lotsu fell injured 20m from the line.

Embarrassingly for the Gift, two of the fastest men in Australia were not even running in the final. The handicappers didn’t have a great day.

Evans admitted he was bullish about his chances when he saw his 9.75m handicap.

“I knew it was a good handicap. I knew I could work something off that, and I just really had to train hard, push hard, see what I could do from it,” he said.

“It was always gonna be tough against, like, Jasper Thomas and Patrick Martin but I knew it [the handicap] was good for me, and I had to just keep pushing from it.”

The rain came and the power went out at Central Park before Gout ran his semi. Then he finished second and the electricity that had crackled around the packed venue disappeared.

First Lachlan Kennedy, the man who only weeks ago ran 10 seconds for the 100 metres in the heat of the national titles, was pipped at the line in his semi-final. Then Gout ran out of track to make up the ground on Evans.

“He was pretty ahead of me, so I tried my hardest hit, and he got me at the end. So it is what it is. Good run,” Gout said.

“I mean, this stuff you can’t control. I just go out there and run and have fun.

“This meet is incredible, and the crowd’s incredible. So I’m definitely happy to run and happy to be in the semi-final.”

Kennedy ran 12.23s and was beaten by Dash Muir, who like Gout is only 17 and doing year 12. The Williamstown student ran 12.18s.

“I just tightened up a little bit. The rain came in, got a bit cold, but I mean he ran a great race. It was close in the end, but yes, didn’t have enough today,” Kennedy said.

Bree Rizzo celebrates winning from scratch.Credit: Luke Hemer

Gout and Kennedy later ran the back markers’ race, which was won by Ryan Tarrant.

In the women’s Gift final, Bree Rizzo made history after the Olympic semi-finalist won the Gift her husband Matt won as an 18-year-old in 2017.

The couple met that year at the Gift when Rizzo, then with the surname Masters, had come down from Queensland to race.

Running from scratch, Rizzo ran a stunning 13.52s to win the race. She also took bragging rights over Matt – he ran off a 7.5m handicap.

“That’s the fastest that I’ve ever run, peg to peg at a Stawell Gift the fastest a woman has ever run was 13.77s, I believe in 2022, so 13.5 is a massive chop off my PB over 120 on grass,” Rizzo said.

“Matt thinks I did better than him now, but look, wherever you win from is absolutely incredible. It is so hard to win a Stawell Gift. So yeah, to add ‘off scratch’, it just blows my mind.”

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