It looks like a training run. If you freeze the shot as Gout crosses the line, there on the far side the Queensland track’s stands are empty.
Behind him there is nothing but a seemingly empty blue track. Just a kid out for a run.
Except this was, theoretically at least, a race. And Gout had just run the second-quickest ever time – behind his own record time – of any Australian man. No one else came close. He was figuratively and literally in a world of his own.
Soon afterwards he raced again in the final and was even quicker again. Gout broke 20 seconds for the 200 metres at the Queensland state championships and celebrated excitedly at the end of the same track where, only four months ago as a 16-year-old, he broke the enduring record Peter Norman set at the 1968 Olympics.
Then it flashed up on screen that the wind was illegal, tempering the celebration a little. But Gout could content himself that, in the sweep of history, only 20 boys his age have run the 200m in less than 20s, regardless of how strong the wind was.
The better measure of where Gout’s performances have quickly got to now is that they are valued for where they stand against the world’s best men. His 20.05s was the quickest of any man in the world this year.
Gout Gout soaks up the attention after his stunning run in the under-20 200m final at the Queensland athletics championships. Credit: Getty Images
Besides, gusty winds are less beneficial in a 200m than 100m as for the first third of the race you are running into any wind that might catch you up down the home straight.
When Gout broke Norman’s record in December it was a shock. He had run a breathtaking 100m in 10.04s with a stiff illegal breeze at his back. But then to came out the next day and break Norman’s record was amazing.
It didn’t seem real. How could a record that no Australian man could break for over 50 years be broken by a boy? It was shocking, and thrilling and glorious all at the one time. How could a kid not yet in year 12 do that? He had been on the radar for several years as a precociously talented teenager, but even for him this was a huge step.
After that, each race now is a surprise but no longer a shock. No one can be shocked any longer by what Gout does.
Gout Gout eases across the finish line while his competitors are still finishing the 200m race.Credit: Australian Athletics
George W. Bush might have co-opted the terms, but we can be in awe of Gout without any longer being shocked by what he can do. Soon it won’t even be a surprise.
“We’re all convinced he’ll run under 20 seconds many times in coming years, there’ll be hopefully a bunch of sub-10s for the 100m also. But 200 is certainly the main focus for the coming years,” Gout’s manager James Templeton said.
“The races on the weekend were good, but in line with expectations. Di (Di Sheppard, Gout’s coach) had felt he’d kicked on from the training camp in Clermont, Florida, (with 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles and his coach). And we were confident he’d be around about the 20-flat mark.
“These were pretty much his first races in three months; they’ll bring him along nicely for the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne (on Saturday, March 29), the Nationals in Perth and Stawell [Gift] at Easter.”
What Gout is doing puts him in the company of the world’s best. It’s easy to overlook the fact he is still just 17 and that this week he is back at Ipswich Grammar doing year 12.
Previously Gout’s age was significant for qualifying his performance: “Gee, he is fast for a kid!”
Now it is an important reminder of his potential: “If he can do this now at 17, what will he be able to do when he is not carrying his play lunch to school in Tupperware and sitting through a double period of maths?”
His performances have piqued the interest of European and American race organisers, who have started reaching out to lure him to their events. And Adidas, who signed him to a $6 million deal, are not the only company that now wants a piece of him.
Gout broke 20 seconds in the 200m final, but the time was wind-assisted.Credit: Australian Athletics
But he is a schoolboy. He still fits his training around school and study. Instead of three or four hours of training during the day, he is still only doing 1.5 to two-hour sessions in the late afternoon, sandwiched between school, dinner and study.
“We’ll go to Europe for just three weeks during Gout’s school holidays in June-July,” Templeton said.
“Gout will probably run two races overseas, the first of which is confirmed as the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in Czech Republic on 24th June. Then back to schoolwork and preparations for the Tokyo World Championships in mid-September ”
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