“Whatever I’ve got to do to show Noah I am coming for that spot.” The words could’ve been dismissed as youthful confidence. Until Gout Gout actually hit the track. Now, it’s no longer just hype. After training alongside Noah Lyles in Florida during the Australian summer, Gout returned home and proved he’s more than just potential. And this weekend, as the NCAA Championships played out with some of the best collegiate athletes in the world, the track world had their eyes halfway across the globe.
At the 128th Queensland Athletics Championships, Gout Gout delivered a performance that made it impossible to ignore, and there’s good reason for track and field athletes everywhere to approach this prodigy with caution. Coach Rob recognizes the 17-year-old’s potential, “Now that he put this time on the boards, it reminds me of what we just saw from Christian Miller last year… Gout just sent that type of warning shot to every serious sprinter in the world.” On March 15, the Australian sensation stormed to victory in the 100m, clocking 10.38 seconds. The real fireworks, however, came on March 16 in the 200m, where Gout didn’t just win—he made history. His time of 20.05s in the 200m secured him the u20 200m title, breaking Makanakaishe Charamba’s record of 20.13s set in Texas last month.
Revealed in a YouTube video by the Coach Rob Track and Field channel, the excitement surrounding Gout Gout isn’t just about raw speed. It’s about the narrative unfolding in real time. As Coach Rob put it, “Even on a weekend where the NCAA Championships are going off… people really want to know what Gout Gout is going to do.” That’s not normal. That’s not even common. A 17-year-old shouldn’t be causing this level of buzz, but when you’re outpacing history and making seasoned analysts rethink their skepticism, the conversation shifts.
For skeptics, this was just another teenage prodigy running fast times. But then, Gout Gout hit the track, and opinions started changing. “For a long time, and even to some degree still at this moment, I thought that the hype was exactly that—it was just hype,” Coach Rob admitted. And yet, here we are, watching a young sprinter redefine what’s possible. The track world has seen phenoms before, but this? This feels different. “He figured out how to shock someone like me halfway around the world in a preliminary 200,” he added. That’s the kind of performance that makes people pause, rewind, and reassess everything they thought they knew about the sport.
The kind of performance that makes elite sprinters. Before that, in the 200m heats, Gout had already set the tone, clocking 20.05 seconds with a wind assistance of +1.2m/s. And when it mattered most, he delivered a statement run. Gout was not even a second behind Usain Bolt’s legendary 200m record, proving that his name belongs in the conversation among the sport’s fastest rising stars. The question now is how far he can push the limits of what we thought was possible.
Gout Gout’s historic quest: A star in the making
After a summer of high-intensity training in Florida alongside Noah Lyles, the 17-year-old sprint sensation is ready to ignite the Australian track scene. His manager, James Templeton, believes history could be made, telling Fox Sports Australia that Gout has a real shot at becoming the first Australian to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m and even go sub-20 in the 200m if the conditions align. Well, he did come very close to the latter this weekend, and if we account for the wind assistance, he has already done it. But Gout’s journey won’t be without challenges.
The real test will come in April at the Stawell Gift, where he’ll finally face some of Australia’s biggest sprinting names. One major competitor is Lachlan Kennedy, who clocked an eye-catching 10.03 seconds at the Perth Track Classic earlier this month. Add Rohan Browning, Sebastian Sultana, Joshua Azzopardi, and Jacob Despard into the mix, and Gout has no shortage of rivals with faster times on paper. However, Templeton insists his young star isn’t rattled. “Certainly, it doesn’t daunt him. He can’t be fretting about some decent local competition. It’s great for Australian athletics,” he said.
Gout’s confidence is undeniable, and it’s part of what makes him such a thrilling prospect. He’s not just here to compete. He’s here to win and test himself against the best. Reflecting on the prospect of racing against Lyles on the world stage, he made his ambitions crystal clear. That hunger to challenge the fastest men on the planet is exactly why Gout Gout is one of the most exciting names to watch in Australian athletics right now.
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