As he rounded the bend into the final 100 metres, Orion Brady was travelling well. He had followed his plan of sitting back slightly – at 98 per cent effort – in the first 90m, before finishing harder. “I try and whip off the bend,” the 17-year-old says.
Brady, running in the outside lane after qualifying seventh for the men’s under-20s 200m at the Queensland Athletic Championships, was now eyeing a podium finish in the final. But 50 metres from the finish line, an immense roar from the crowd caught him off guard.
“I almost felt like stopping running because I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ I’ve never heard a crowd that loud in my life before,” Brady said.
If you watch the race, earlier this month, back you can see why – from the starting pistol, schoolboy star Gout Gout has driven clear of the pack from the centre lane. In social media footage of the final 50m, he appears strangely alone in QSAC stadium, the sole runner in the frame. While his contemporaries are still competing in the under-20s, Gout, himself barely 17, is running – and winning – his own race with the seniors.
His wind-assisted time of 19.98s, his first time under the 20-second barrier, is ineligible for records, but his heat time of 20.05s still makes him the fastest man in the event this year (albeit out-of-season for most of the world).
The interest in the young Queenslander, who has already claimed the national men’s 200m record, is expected to make this weekend’s Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne the biggest domestic athletics event since the Cathy Freeman era.
Liam Atkinson (left) and Zaine Leigh (right) trail winner Gout Gout in the men’s under-20s 200m final at the Queensland Athletics Championships on March 16.Credit: Getty Images
For fourth-placed Brady, who has competed against Gout since year seven, the state championship race was special. “At this stage, it’s pretty cool to race against him because there’s no sense that I could be competitive against him,” he says. “It’s just an honour.”
It’s a common sentiment among the teenage athletes who placed behind Gout that day. Far from being disheartened, they have left with memories which might one day rival fighting an up-and-coming Cassius Clay, or playing high school basketball against Michael Jordan. The attention of the public and schoolmates has also motivated them to cut into the awkward seconds between his finish time and theirs when they next meet.
Zaine Leigh, 18, who finished second with a time of 22.10s, is doing a panel-beating apprenticeship after leaving school last year. He says racing against Gout is pushing him to keep sprinting.
“My goal is obviously to be the fastest,” he says. “I don’t really care if he’s the fastest at the current time – I’m just going to keep improving.”
Wally Plath, the coach of Liam Atkinson – who finished third in a time of 22.12s – says that if you take the “very talented” Gout Gout out of the field, there were other success stories that day.
The 18-year-old Atkinson, for example, grew up training on dirt roads on a cattle station six hours west of Cairns and didn’t run on a track until a year seven school carnival, did not qualify for the North Queensland regional final in September. In the state final, he finished third, shaving off more than half a second for a wind-assisted personal best.
James Culley, who finished fifth in 22.91s, says he and other competitors love to race against Gout because he acts as a “driver”, spurring them on to faster performances.
Culley’s mother, Fiona, admits parental obligations can be forgotten in the excitement of seeing Gout race.
Athletics commentator Bruce McAvaney congratulates Gout after the race.Credit: Getty Images
“Sometimes I follow Gout rather than James when I’m filming, I get carried away,” she says. “His flow is just incredible.”
Brady explains he feels “pulled forward” by Gout. “I have to race better when I’m racing with him,” he says.
Gout, already known for his emphatic celebrations, is often compared to a teenage Usain Bolt – he is already running faster than the Jamaican legend at the same age – but all his competitors speak highly of his “humble” personality away from the track.
Leigh, for whom competition usually brings out a healthy animosity, says they had a friendly exchange at the start of the race.
“I said, ‘Good luck’, and he said, ‘Good luck’ as well – ‘See you at the finish line’. It was a relief to hear that. He’s too nice a person to hate,” he laughs.
All four athletes say they plan to take athletics as far as they can. Leigh and Atkinson, who will compete against Gout in the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth next month, have their own national team ambitions, even if Atkinson acknowledges that Gout might be a little closer right now.
“It definitely gives you hope, because he’s running a really good time. It shows you where you have to be in a few years – it’s something to strive for.”
