He’s just Gout of this world: ‘Top speed is my gift’

Gout Gout bristled with enough electricity to illuminate the city of Perth. Are they legs or steel springs? Arms or steam train pistons? Ready, set, go like the clappers.

Gout Gout crosses the finish line to win the men's 200m final during the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Gout Gout’s in a hurry. Must run.

You couldn’t build a better sprinter with artificial intelligence. He bristled with enough electricity to illuminate the city of Perth. Are they legs or steel springs? Arms or steam train ­pistons?

Ready, set, go like the clappers – he won the 200m final at the Australian Athletics Championships on Sunday by holding his nerve to hold off the rest of the field after the suffocating tension of two false starts and the dramatic disqualification of his greatest rival, Lachie Kennedy, the only bloke we thought might give him a run for his money.

“Feels pretty good,” Gout said after stopping the clock in a world-class time of 19.88sec. “That’s what I’ve been chasing. I focused on my first 100 and that’s exactly what I did, I got out and I sent it.

“Top speed is my gift, so I used it, took off and got sub-20. I couldn’t be happier.”

Gout of this world, and so forth, but for the third time at the championships, as if the Fremantle doctor itself was overexcited, he was gone with the wind.

A tailwind of 2.2m/second, a mere zephyr over the limit, made his sizzling time unofficial. Gout was thumping his chest, shadow boxing and pumping his fists past the finish line, only to throw his head to the heavens and put his hands to his face when he saw the breeze had been agonisingly too strong for a legal time.

His electrifying twin times of 9.9sec in the under 20s 100m semi-final and final, which he won with performances so powerfully graceful you thought he might have elevated a couple of centimetres off the track, also came with an illegal wind.

No matter. Quick is quick, and the young fellow is quicker than Usain Bolt at the same age, akin to a teenage cricketer racking up better numbers than Don Bradman.

He’s only 17 years of age but already a supreme showman. You couldn’t take your eyes off him from start to blistering finish. Certain athletes have IT. What is IT? Magnetism paired with a freakish, natural, awe-inspiring, once-in-a-generation gift. IT is difficult to describe, but you know IT when you see IT. Gout has IT.

He’s only 17 years of age but Gout Gout is already a supreme showman. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

He ran so fast you could barely see him. Afterwards, he spoke so rapidly you could hardly understand him. “It feels great,” he said breathlessly. “I think I’m one of the youngest to win the 200m ­national title. Shout-out to my coach, manager, friends and family. I couldn’t be happier.”

Suddenly, indisputably, rather shockingly, track and field has become one of the best shows in town.

The 1500m victories by Cameron Myers and Jessica Hull on Saturday evening were thrillers; the 100m deciders, claimed by Rohan Browning and Torrie Lewis, who romped home by four-­thousandths-of-a-second in the most extraordinary photo finish, were even better. The World Athletics Championships will be staged at Tokyo in September. For Gout and this eye-catching, increasingly noteworthy new breed of Australians, intriguing times and opportunities are afoot.

Gout’s in a hurry to compete again. He’ll contest the famous old Stawell Gift on the Easter weekend. Spectators will be hanging from the rafters when the most sensational, must-see young athlete in Australia is one of the backmarkers for the storied 147-year-old race.

Oh, what a sight that will be! Sporting romance at its finest. His heat is on Friday. The final is Easter Monday. “I’ll have a bit of fun there,” he said. And then he had to go. Must keep running.