Genie out of the bottle for Gout after breakthrough nationals

Stubborn tailwinds may have denied Gout Gout official times at Australia’s athletics championships but they did nothing to blow away the hype surrounding the 17-year-old sprinter after his watershed meet.

The Queensland schoolboy claimed his first national title in the 200 metres in a wind-assisted 19.84 seconds in Perth on Sunday, days after clocking 9.99 in the 100 of the under-20 event with another illegal wind.

The 200 win was an emphatic response two weeks after being upstaged by compatriot Lachlan Kennedy in front of a capacity crowd at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.

While the setback may have knocked the confidence of other callow runners, Gout’s coach Di Sheppard said it had only made him angry.

There would be no 200 rematch with Kennedy, who was disqualified for a false start on Sunday, but Gout channelled his rage superbly to blitz the rest of the field.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Gout said of the wind.

“I run fast times, but the wind is not on my side.

“These are the steps we take to the top, you know? And these are the steps I have to take to potentially become world champion, Olympic champion.”

A parade of athletes and officials have warned Australia not to expect too much too soon of Gout, the son of South Sudan immigrants whose runs have earned comparisons with Usain Bolt.

The warnings have gone largely unheeded.

“What is also now a matter not open for debate is that Gout is the real thing. We are witnesses to greatness emerging in front of us by the race,” said a testimonial published in The Age, a Melbourne newspaper.

Gout can no longer go out in public without being swamped by fans and will return to his high school in Ipswich, outside of Brisbane, to another round of cheers from classmates.

“The cork’s out of the genie bottle now,” Sheppard said.

Australia will have another look at Gout at the Stawell Gift, a rural meet in southern Victoria state in the coming Easter weekend.

The world will have to wait until his winter school holidays when he makes his international debut in Europe.

Gout is scheduled to race twice in Europe, including the Ostrava Golden Spike on June 24 in the Czech Republic — stepping stones on the way to a World Championships debut in Tokyo in September.

While Gout hogged the limelight in Perth, governing body Australian Athletics was buoyed by a string of national records falling during the meet.

Peter Bol, who finished fourth in the 800 at the Tokyo Olympics, took the national mark in 1:43.79, a return to form after his career was disrupted by a doping saga in 2023 before being cleared of wrongdoing.

Patrick Johnson’s long-standing Australian record of 9.93 in the men’s 100 remains intact but he may soon be joined by a compatriot in the sub-10 second club.

Kennedy ran 10 seconds flat in a heat before he was edged in the final by Rohan Browning, who matched his personal best of 10.01.

“I wanted to come out and remind these guys who their dad is,” 27-year-old Browning said.

“There’s a lot of short memories in this sport.”