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“It’s actually scary”: The mind-boggling potential of Australia’s sprinting dynamo Gout Gout
Lachlan Geleit • December 9th, 2024 7:27 pm
Gout Gout is the talk of the town after the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships.
The 16-year-old Queenslander dominated both the 100m and 200m sprints, breaking the Australian record in the 200m final with an astounding time of 20.04 seconds.
That effort even surpassed Usain Bolt’s best time as an under 18 which came in at 20.13 while being clocked as the fastest ever time by a 16-year-old.
Athletics expert and commentator Mitch Dyer - who called the event - was absolutely gobsmacked by what the teenager produced in Brisbane.
Dyer thinks that the world is Gout’s oyster when it comes to pro athletics, particularly if he can get his starts right given he has a trademark blistering finish.
“What he's running at the moment is absolutely unreal,” Dyer told SEN Mornings.
“The 100m is fun for him, that’s not his event, it’s just something where he just rolls out and in that last 50m he hits the jets and he’s gone.
“The 200m is his pet event, so to come out and run 10.04 and then back it up with a legal 10.17 (in the 100m) was just mind-boggling.
“It caught me and I think even the crowd to a certain extent by surprise, but I guess you can't be surprised by anything he does because he is on a different level.
“I tell you what if he can get that start, right, the world is his oyster,
“If he can nail that start, if he can just get up there early, it's actually scary what he can do.”
While Gout is only 16, Dyer thinks that the young superstar could end up being a generational athlete in world athletics.
If his trajectory continues, Dyer thinks Gout could make a statement as a 20-year-old at the 2028 LA Olympics before hitting his prime at the home 2032 Brisbane Olympics as a 24-year-old.
“I think it's hard because this is the superstar in athletics that we’ve been looking to have for a long time,” Dyer said.
“We've had an incredible year in athletics, it’s arguably been the greatest year in Australian athletic history … but for this kid now to come out and do what he's done, he's actually putting it on the map.
“I think it's important to recognise he's 16. He's just a kid. He's having fun … I think his head is, is pretty well grounded.
“But, if we can keep him in athletics, if we can keep him having fun, if we can keep him having that infectious, ‘Look at me, I'm not scared of the world’, personality, then this kid could honestly be generational.
“He can come out in LA, he can come out at his home Olympic games in Brisbane in eight years’ time and really just show the world what Australian sprinting is made of.”
