Sprinting sensation Gout Gout is facing even more naysayers over his performance at the national championships.
Gout, 18, clocked a blistering 19.67 seconds in Sydney – a time quicker than current world record holder Usain Bolt had set at the same age.
The likes of former Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin and US College sprinter Erin Brown have already attempted to cast doubt on Gout’s incredible achievement.
The initial claim from Brown was that there was an illegal tailwind, but that has since been disproven with a 1.7m/s tailwind recorded at Sydney Olympic Park.
Now, on the FloTrack Meet Up podcast, DeVontae Ford and Olumide Olamigoke Jr. have both questioned whether Gout Gout’s time was recorded correctly.
The crux of the two American track and field stars is the personal best times set by his competitors at the event.
Olumide Olamigoke Jr questioned the margin of personal best times set by the field in which Gout Gout set his scintillating 19.67 time
Devontae Ford couldn’t hide his facial expressions as he also questioned the validity of the time set
Gout Gout set a sparkling time of 19.67 at the Australian National Championship
In the video posted on Instagram both Ford and Olamigoke pull faces at each other as the discuss whether the timing is accurate.
Ford opens up by saying ‘you know my mama said, if you ain’t got nothing nice to say, don’t say it.
‘I’m all for Gout, I think that he is a generational talent. But if a bunch of people PR by a large margin, you’re going to stop questioning whether those athletes had a really good day and start questioning, okay, is there something wrong with this system.
‘See a lot of these athletes run this fast and then they’ll never touch it again.
‘Not even a major championship. If this was an Olympic final I’d understand. Everyone is PRing at a random meet in the middle of the season,’
To which host Nia Gibson responds ‘It’s questionable,’ before listing the personal best times set by the top seven finishers in the race.
As the times are listed off, that included Gout improving from a 20.0 to a 19.67. Olamigoke Jr again struggles to hide his emotions as he pulls a sarcastic face at the suggestion.
Gibson goes on to ask ‘I think the beautiful thing about track and field is it’s not political like football or basketball when it comes to winning or losing.
‘If you run the time, you run the time that’s it, that’s usually end of discussion, why do you think it was just this immediate eyebrows raising?’
To which Olamigoke responds ‘We don’t necessarily want to discredit them but it is the margin of the previous personal best to what their personal best now is.’
Ford then adds ‘If Gout Gout’s 19.67 was at 4.0 wind, I’d be like 100 percent he probably did do that.
‘But the fact that it’s marked as wind legal that’s when it’s questionable.’
That has drawn the ire of fans who were quick to jump to the 18-year-old sensation’s defence, with many stating that it was the Australian national title event, not a so-called ‘random’ event.
A user with the account name leo_o3 responded ‘That was Australia’s national title event. Not a “random” event in the middle of the season.
‘This was the end of the Australian domestic season. Individuals trying to qualify for the Australian team. Every athlete was aiming to peak at this event.’
While another under the account nelleke.runs called the segment ‘rage bait’ adding ‘what absolute rubbish. Australia is not some 3rd world country with a jerry rigged timing system.
Olamigoke competed in the triple jump at the 2016 Olympic Games
Devontae Ford is ranked 182nd in the world in the men’s 110m hurdles
‘This was the National Championships. The biggest meet for the domestic season & athletes MUST compete there in order to qualify for teams etc. Also not unique for multiple athletes to PR in a fast race. Give me a break.’
The criticism from the podcast is the latest in a pile on from a number of American track and field stars, with Erin Brown previously taking aim at the teen sensation.
‘I thought we really witnessed something special … a million people done text me, man, Gout Gout just ran 19.6,’ Brown told his followers on Tiktok.
‘That made me inclined to go check the results.
‘Not gonna lie, and if you say this s**t is hating, your ass is coping, because you and you wanna be different.
‘This s**t is clearly fake. Obviously, overtly, this is as fake as it comes.’
‘So Gout Gout, who ran 20.4 in his last race, shows up, run 19.6,’ Brown said.
‘Aidan Murphy in second. A guy whose PR is 20.4, shows up and runs 19.8.
‘Calab Law, a guy who’s ran 20.7 this year, shows up and runs 20.2.
‘So if you just see the pattern off the top three, it’s seeming like everybody is running pretty much half a second faster than they’ve ever ran.
‘And if you skip all the way to the bottom with just Archer [McHugh], 20.3, and this is a guy who broke 21 seconds for the first time like two weeks ago, 20.8, then he shows up and runs a half second faster.
‘So everybody in a race runs a half second faster than they’ve ever ran. But the race is real and the time is real.
‘Australia keeps producing some of the fakest marks that we ever see, and y’all gas that s**t up every time, and then these people go get they ass stepped on.’
Gout has previously laughed off the criticism ‘There are always going to be haters, if you’ve got haters it means you’re doing something right.
‘It is what it is, I never take it (to heart), I just keep running… obviously, it (200m time) was pretty fast, so that’s maybe why they (haters) were a bit mad.
‘It motivates me to do it in even bigger races, for sure.’
Olamigoke Jr who was born in America, actually competed for Nigeria in the triple jump at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio finishing 32nd.
Ford meanwhile is primarily a hurdle specialist and according to his World Athletics profile is ranked 182nd in the men’s 110m and 482nd in the 400m discipline.
