Teenage sprint star Gout Gout smashes Australian age-group 100m record as Usain Bolt comparisons gather pace
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Published 06/12/2024 at 11:04 GMT
The Australian is drawing comparisons to the iconic Usain Bolt after the 16-year-old clocked a wind-assisted 10.04s in the All-Schools Athletics Championships. Gout Gout is running 100m and 200m times comparable to the legendary Jamaican at the same age and would have broken the all-time Under-18 record set by Christian Miller had a tailwind of 3.4 m/s not rendered his time illegal.
Gout Gout of Queensland looks on after running the final leg of the Boys' U18 4 x 100m relay to win during the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Australian All Schools Athletics Championship at Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre on December 06, 2024 in Brisbane, Australia.
Image credit: Getty Images
Teenage sprinting sensation Gout Gout soared to fifth in the all-time Under-18 100m charts after the 16-year-old took gold at the All-Schools Athletics Championships in Queensland.
The Australian’s wind-assisted 10.04s in the heats would have been enough to smash the national Under-18 record, which he claimed with a legal 10.17s in the final.
This beat his personal best of 10.29s and was a tenth of a second quicker than the previous Australian Under-18 record, held by Sebastian Sultana.
In the national standings, only Patrick Johnson, the only Australian to breach the 10-second barrier, Rohan Browning and Matt Shirvington have clocked a faster 100m than Gout’s 10.04s.
Gout only turns 17 on December 29, but he already has Christian Miller’s all-time Under-18 record of 10.06s in his sights.
Comparisons with the legendary Usain Bolt have already been floated, with Gout also excelling over the longer sprint distance.
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The youngster won silver at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in August over the 200m and his 20.29s at the Queensland All Schools Track and Field Championships heats was the fourth fastest by an Australian of any age.
Bolt, meanwhile, clocked 20.13 at the same age and won world Under-20 gold in 2002 with a time of 20.61s as a 15-year-old.
Gout was born in 2007 in Brisbane to parents of South Sudanese origin, and he will hope to better his 200m personal best at the Queensland event on Saturday.
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