Last week, we reported that Gout Gout, a 16-year-old sprinter from Australia, had signed a pro contract with Adidas. On Sunday, the sprinter clocking a blazing 20.29 at the All Schools Queensland track and field championships, breaking his country’s U18 and U20 200m national records, which had stood for 31 years. (It’s also an area record for Oceania.) His time is the fourth-fastest in Australia’s history.
Gout already held the U18 record; the previous U20 record was set by Aidan Murphy at 20.42 in 2022.
The Australian (open) 200m record was set at 20.06 by Peter Norman at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where he earned the silver medal, famously sharing a podium with Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
20.29s!! 🔥
☑️ Australian U-20 Record
☑️ #4 World U-18 all timeWorld U-20 silver medalist Gout Gout scorches to an Australian U-20 200m record of 20.29s (1.2) at the Queensland School Championships just days after turning pro. pic.twitter.com/CUYyI77yaX
— World Athletics Hub (@wldathleticshub) November 3, 2024
The sprinter made a name for himself after running 20.77 over 200m at the World U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, in August, where he won silver.
Gout has been compared to Jamaican sensation and world record holder Usain Bolt, whose time at the 2002 World Junior Athletics Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, Gout surpassed by .01 seconds.
In 2005, Gout’s parents moved from South Sudan to Brisbane, Australia where Gout was born in 2007. The athlete attends Ipswich Grammar School, an all-boys boarding school, in Queensland, Australia, where he first showed off his athleticism in rugby. He’ll only be 24 when the Olympics come to his hometown of Brisbane in 2032.
