Gout Gout: Is a 17-year-old wonderkid the next Usa...

Geraint Hughes

Sky Sports activities Information

Gout Gout is ready to be the following star as he takes half within the World Championships for Australia; At 14 years of age, he ran 10.57 seconds for the 100m and only a yr later, broke the Australian U18 200m file – he was simply 15

Gout Gout has many excited with simply what he may obtain on the World Athletics Championships

He is not even sufficiently old to drink the champagne that is perhaps flowing his approach ought to he style success within the males’s 200m on the World Championships, but Gout Gout has received many astute observers salivating at his uncommon skills.

World Athletics President Seb Coe instructed Sky Sports activities; “He is the actual deal.” So why is a 17-year-old child from Queensland, Australia getting individuals excited?

Gout Gout is quick and has been for a couple of years, however it’s at these World Championships that we would see his shear potential as he makes the difficult transition from ‘junior’ to ‘senior’ athlete.

The son of fogeys from war-torn South Sudan, his mum Monica and pa Bona moved to Australia after fleeing the battle there, their son was born two years after they’d settled in Australia.

By his early teenagers it was clear he was a gifted sportsman, enjoying soccer and sprinting to a excessive commonplace. At 14, he ran 10.57 seconds for the 100m and only a yr later broke the Australian U18 200m file – he was simply 15.

Final yr he set a path of home information in each 100m and 200m whereas additionally posting very respectable instances over 400m.

Whereas tongues have been already wagging inside Australia and amongst athletics aficionados, it was in October of final yr when Gout Gout actually began to be observed. He had signed a cope with Adidas and ran 20.29 over 200m turning into the fourth-fastest ever over that distance for youth age teams, Usain Bolt being a type of quicker.

Two months later he ran 20.04, this time was quicker than Bolt had been within the U18 class and set a brand new Australian males’s senior file, breaking the earlier file that had been held since 1968.

Earlier this yr Gout Gout did dip beneath the magic 20-second barrier, working 19.84 seconds, but it surely was simply over the authorized wind-assisted fee of two metres a second (+2.2m/sec) so whereas the race time stands, it will possibly’t be logged as both a file or a private finest.

In June, when making his senior debut racing in Europe, he broke the Australian senior file once more, decreasing it to twenty.02 seconds. It could have been one of many best surprises in sprinting had Australia not chosen Gout Gout for the World Championships, they duly did choose him to compete over 200m.

As Gout Gout is so younger and so quick, the comparisons with Usain Bolt are to be anticipated, however many are involved that the hype might harm the development of a uncommon expertise. Coe although has been impressed with how the 17-year-old is being sorted; “He’s the actual deal, however the problem over the following three to 4 years is to take his expertise into the seniors.

“He’s very level-headed and has good man-management… it is an awesome story, however I would not burden him with a medal (on the World Championships). It is a studying curve and I believe he could also be too younger to understand what’s going on!”

The nice Usain Bolt agrees with Coe, talking in Tokyo forward of the Championships, he mentioned: “If he continues on this observe it’ll be good, but it surely’s all about getting every little thing proper.

“It is at all times simpler once you’re youthful as a result of I used to be there. I used to do nice issues after I was younger, however the transition to senior from junior is at all times more durable.”

These sage phrases of recommendation from World and Olympic Champions hasn’t stopped the hype although, particularly in Australia the place pundits consider Gout Gout will make the 200m last – one thing Bolt didn’t do at that age – with greater than double the variety of Australian media accredited for the Tokyo World Championships in contrast with Budapest 2023.

There’s typically an elevated curiosity in athletics in Australia, they received seven observe and discipline medals at Paris 2024 and together with Gout Gout, have a number of different real medal contenders for Tokyo.

Couple this surge in expertise with Brisbane set to host the 2032 Olympic Video games, many who love the hyperbole have already put the Gold medal round Gout Gout’s neck for the dash double in seven years time.

Appears a very long time… Gout Gout will nonetheless solely be 24!