Teenage sprint star Gout Gout’s coach Diane Sheppard believes her prodigy can break Peter Norman’s 56-year-old Australian 200m record next year after smashing the Australian Under-20 record.
Norman’s record time of of 20.06 set at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics is the longest-held senior record in Australian athletics. Norman earned a silver medal for his run and famously stood alongside gold medallist Tommie Smith and bronze medallist John Carlos on the podium and supported the American competitors as they gave a black power salute.
Gout set a new Australian Under-20 record in the 200m of 20.29 seconds at the Queensland All-Schools Championships on Sunday, beating previous record holder Aidan Murphy’s time of 20.41. Sheppard is now confident her 16-year-old charge can continue his astonishing progress in the sport by breaking Norman’s long-held record.
“The Peter Norman record could go next year, it’s a matter of how do we progress from here,” Sheppard said. “What do we need to do? Our whole basics will be, just continue the way we are and start to look at more emphasis on his start (in the race), which we’ve already started to do.
“But that’s long term, because he’s going to grow a little bit more, he’s going to fill out, so your angles change, and it’s just that constant re-evaluation while he’s growing.”
Sheppard has coached athletics for 28 years, but has never had a student like Gout who grabbed the sporting world’s attention by winning the silver medal in the 200m at the world junior champions in Peru in August with a time of 20.60.
Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium in Mexico.Credit: AP
That performance earned Gout lofty comparisons with Usain Bolt who had run a time of 20.61 to win gold in the same meet 22 years before, but ultimately, the performance was just another learning experience to digest.
“When Gout and I got back from World Juniors, we were talking about a week afterwards and he goes to me: ‘what we did (in Peru) was pretty big hey?’ and I went ‘yeah’, but he said ‘we’re not acting like it’ and I said, ‘I think the reason we’re not acting like it Gout, is because we know it’s a stepping stone,’” Sheppard said.
“Our plans are pretty hard and fast…every meet we attend is a learning meet, irrelevant of the level of meet.”
When Sheppard is asked if she believes that Gout has the potential to be Australia’s greatest-ever sprint athlete, her response is immediate. “Definitely, 100 per cent”.
The coach’s confidence is built not just on Gout’s immense physical gifts, but also his willingness to relentlessly work on his craft in training.
“He’s an extremely humble young man, and he fully gets from the day we started this journey that it’s a journey,” Sheppard said. “I think that’s half the issue with these (talented) kids, they start looking for the rewards way before and do not understand that it’s the whole process…the rewards happen, but you’ve got to be in there for the long haul.”
