![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/r1589538_608x342_16-9.png\")
<\/p>\nAustralian sprint sensation Gout Gout has decided not to compete at this year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games, choosing to focus on the world under-20 championships, where he hopes to emulate the legendary Usain Bolt.<\/p>\n
The two events are back-to-back in the northern hemisphere summer and the 18-year-old Gout and his support team have deemed it would be unwise to contest both so early in his burgeoning career.<\/p>\n
“It is (a big decision),” Gout told the Seven Network.<\/p>\n
“(The Commonwealth Games) is a great event and it’s one of those big meetings everyone loves.<\/p>\n
“But looking at it, it is definitely a better decision going for the world under-20s.”<\/p>\n
The August 5-9 meet – formerly known as the world junior championships – will take place in Eugene, Oregon, at the same stadium that hosted the 2022 world championships.<\/p>\n
Before going on to dominate world sprinting and rewrite the record books, Bolt kicked off his career with 200m gold at the 2002 world juniors.<\/p>\n
Gout – who was second in the half-lap race at the world under-20 championships in Lima at the age of 16 – has often spoken of his wish to emulate Bolt’s feat.<\/p>\n
STAY IN THE KNOW WITH ESPN<\/p>\n
Stay across all the big sports news — sign up to our weekly newsletters here!<\/p>\n
SUBSCRIBE<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old from Queensland has become a cult figure after exploding on to the global athletics scene less than two years ago.<\/p>\n
After breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old 200m national record in late 2024, Gout made global headlines in 2025 with a world championships debut and 200m semi-final appearance in Japan.<\/p>\n
He had been flagged as a potential 100m medallist in Glasgow, and his absence will be a significant blow to the Australian team and the event as a whole.<\/p>\n
But Australian Commonwealth Games team chef de mission Petria Thomas said she understood the teenager’s decision to pull out of the Games, which run from July 23 to August 2.<\/p>\n
“Gout is a remarkable talent and although he won’t be in Glasgow, we hope to see him don the green and gold at a Commonwealth Games in the future,” Thomas said.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s important that we all remember he is 18 and remains on the rise.<\/p>\n
“He has a long career ahead of him and we respect his decision to prioritise the world under-20 championships as he builds towards a home Olympic Games at Brisbane 2032.”<\/p>\n
Australian Athletics also supported Gout’s decision to focus on the junior championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout has decided not to compete at this year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games, choosing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-467197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}