Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout claimed the 100m title at the Australian athletics junior championships in Brisbane on Saturday, clocking 10.21 seconds with a legal tailwind of +0.5m/s. The 18-year-old eased up before the line, waving to the crowd as he finished ahead of Zavier Peacock (10.35) and Uwezo Lubenda (10.37).
“I didn’t have the best start, but I came out for the win, and I wanted to put on a show,” Gout said after securing his second consecutive under-20 100m national crown. “The more of a show there is, the more people that are going to come and watch. The more pressure, the faster you run.”
Gout qualified fastest through the heats with a 10.19-second run on Friday, but did not target the 10-second barrier in the final. He has a personal best of 10.00 seconds set in February, and previously ran 9.99 seconds with an excessive tailwind at last year’s national championships.
The Queenslander will soon head overseas for his first senior athletics campaign, including a Diamond League meet in Oslo in June against 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo. He will also train with 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles in the United States before a 150m duel at the Ostrava Golden Spike meet on 16 June.
“It definitely means a lot, knowing I can go up against the Olympic champion, world champion,” Gout said. “I will definitely up my game, for sure, versing the best guy in the world right now.”
Gout will skip the Commonwealth Games this year to focus on the 200m at the World Junior Championships in Oregon in August. He and his team will decide in the coming months whether to add the 100m to his program.
