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Gout Gout just ran 19.67 at the Australian Championships, smashing the national 200m record of 20.02. It wasn’t a soft race either. Fellow Australian sprinter Aidan Murphy, one of the country’s best over 200m, also went under the old mark with 19.88 in second. Gout just had more late, pulling away over the final 50 metres and putting it beyond reach, with Channel 7’s Bruce McAvaney calling it in real time: “The world will be shaking. It is seismic.”
At 18, that time puts him ahead of where Usain Bolt was at the same age. Bolt ran 19.93 as a teenager, won World Junior gold, and was already travelling the circuit as the best young 200m runner in the world. He had the titles and the stage to go with it. Could Gout Gout be next?
Bolt had already proven he could win internationally. Gout is still building that part. He’s been beaten this year. Lachie Kennedy took the 100m in 9.96 and got the better of him recently, and even here Murphy was right with him until the closing stretch.
You can see where he sits. The times are there. He’s just not winning them all yet.
But it’s not as if Bolt blew through the competition from the first firing pistol.
He won World Junior gold at 15, ran 19.93 at 17, and was always seen as the future of the 200m. But through his early senior years, it didn’t fully click. At the 2004 Olympics, he went out in the first round. Injuries followed, and by 2005 and 2007 he was still inconsistent. Then 2008 happened.
He ran 9.72 in New York to break the 100m world record, then 9.69 at the Beijing Olympics to win gold. Days later, he backed it up with 19.30 in the 200m, breaking Michael Johnson’s record.
A year later, he went again. 9.58 and 19.19 at the 2009 World Championships.
Gout Gout doesn’t shy away from the challenge.
After the race, he said he “had a lot more in the tank,” and that even the conditions weren’t ideal.
“I have the speed and my body to run times like that… I’m ready for more.”
You can see it. When he gets going, the gap opens quickly. It just doesn’t show up the same way every time yet.
So, Just How Good Is He?
At 18, he’s already run faster than Usain Bolt did at the same age and edged past Erriyon Knighton as the fastest official 18-year-old over 200m.
That puts him in serious company.
But he’s still racing guys like Lachie Kennedy locally, and globally, sprinters like Noah Lyles are running similar times and turning them into Olympic medals.
That’s the Gout Gout gap.
He’s already quick enough. Now it’s about how often he can do it when it counts.
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