Teenage sprinter Gout Gout waved to the home crowd as he powered to victory in the under-20 100m at the Australian Junior Championships – but failed to break the elusive sub-10 barrier.
The 18-year-old recovered from a sluggish start that left him second at halfway before surging clear to win with a legal +0.5 metres-per-second tailwind, finishing ahead of Zavier Peacock and Uwezo Lubenda with a time of 10.21s.
Gout, who ran 10.19s in the heats and qualified for the final with 10.44s in the semi-final, claimed his second consecutive national under-20 100m title despite missing his goal of dipping below 10 seconds.
“My family is here somewhere so I was waving to them, my friends and a couple of the fans,” Gout said after the win.
“I didn’t have the best start. I couldn’t tell you why. The coach could probably tell you. I came out for the ‘W’ (win) pretty much and put on a show for the people watching.”
The win came less than a week after Gout delivered a landmark performance at the Australian Athletics Championships, where he ran 19.67s in the 200m to become the first man from his country to break the 20-second barrier – setting a time faster than Usain Bolt managed at the same age.
That race was his first official sub-20, following a wind-assisted 19.84 last season at the national championships.
Gout ran a personal best in the 100m of 10.00s in February and previously clocked 9.99s in Perth, though that effort was aided by excessive wind.
“I have done 10.00 flat in my season opener and that race was a bit rocky. Time will tell obviously but I am pretty sure that is coming soon,” Gout said about breaking the 10-second barrier.
“Obviously I didn’t do it here, but soon for sure. I don’t feel pressure too much but pressure comes with the territory. The more people, the more pressure there is. The more pressure, the faster you run.
“Putting on a show is great. I love putting on a show.”
His performance on Saturday was well outside Patrick Johnson’s Australian national record of 9.93s, set in Japan in 2003, and the 9.96s recorded twice by Lachlan Kennedy at the senior championships earlier this month.
