Can Gout Gout live up to expectations in first World Champs?

Nicholas Quinlan • September 13th, 2025 12:38 pm

SBS Athletics commentator Mitch Dyer has given his prediction for how Gout Gout will perform at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this week.

Having finished 2nd in the U20 World Championship last year in the 200 metres, the 17-year-old has begun competing in open age competitions and has continued to perform.

In the National Championships in Perth, Gout ran a wind-affected 19.84 in the final to win. He has also done well in his last two meets, having won both with times within the 20.1 mark.

This sees Gout currently rated No. 16 in the world in the 200 metres.

As he does his last preparations before the World Championships begin, Dyer thinks that Gout’s preparation has been good and appears to be trending in the right direction.

He also believes that the training camp that the teenager did in the US, where he trained alongside Olympic Champion Noah Lyles, will also hold him in good standing.

“I know that he’s been training pretty hard, he’s gone back with Di Sheppard (coach),” Dyer said on SEN’s The Captain’s Run.

“He obviously ran that school race a month ago, where he went clocked sub 10 (seconds).

“So, I would say he’s trending in the right direction. But the beauty of Gout is that he did this podcast, and he was over in the US in January and spent a lot of time with Noah Lyles and all of that.

“So, I tend to think when he is in the call room and he’s rubbing shoulders with them, it will be familiar, which is good.”

With this being his first senior World Championship, Dyer believes that Gout has a chance of being able to go beyond the heats. But he feels that this championship is more about the teenage prodigy getting used to the magnitude of these events.

“I’d love to see a medal,” he declared.

“But if I was putting my Athletics cap on, I would say him getting to the semis will be a massive win.

“I think his talent is there and his time is there, and obviously, if we were to look at it on paper, then the semi-finals are well within the realm of possibility.

“I think when you step into a stadium and an arena like this for the first time, 60,000 people all cheering your own name, just being able to harness that energy is a win.

“I know him and his camp have very big expectations on what he can achieve, and I think if he can get to the semis.

“For mine, if he makes the final, that is one hell of a championship.”

The World Athletics Championships will begin on September 13.

Gout will only be competing in the 200 metres with his heat taking place on September 17, with the finals taking place on September 18.