{"id":602484,"date":"2026-04-12T17:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602484\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T17:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T17:50:09","slug":"teen-sprint-star-gout-powers-to-200m-win-in-19-67-seconds-athletics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602484\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen sprint star Gout powers to 200m win in 19.67 seconds | Athletics News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gout Gout\u2019s breaks the under-20 world record for 200m, while also making him faster than Usain Bolt at the same age.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 12 Apr 202612 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout<\/a> has broken the world Under-20 record in the 200 metres, finishing with a time of 19.67 seconds to win the race at the Australian Athletics Championships.<\/p>\n

Gout became the first Australian to break the 20-second barrier in Sydney on Sunday, with his record-breaking feat making him faster than the Jamaican great Usain Bolt at the same age.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Fellow Australian Aidan Murphy also cracked the 20-second mark, coming second with 19.88 \u2013 the two quickest times of the year, both achieved with a legal tailwind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I\u2019ve been waiting for,\u201d said Gout at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have such incredible athletes in Australia, and me being able to race these athletes, we push each other to the limits. Two Australians sub-20. I mean, this is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gout\u2019s spectacular effort with a legal +1.7-metres-per-second tailwind meant that the 18-year-old defended his 200m title and sent out a warning to his rivals.<\/p>\n

He also eclipsed the previous world Under-20 mark set by Erriyon Knighton, while improving on his own national record of 20.02 set last year.<\/p>\n

Gout\u2019s record run marked the first time he has \u200c\u200cgone below 20 seconds in legal conditions, after achieving the feat last year with the aid of a tailwind when he clocked 19.84 at the national championships.<\/p>\n

His time was faster than Bolt\u2019s, who ran 19.93 in 2004, at the same age.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big weight off my shoulders knowing I ran it legally, and I have the speed and my body to run times like that. So, it definitely feels great, and I\u2019m ready for more,\u201d Gout said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote down 19.75 seconds \u2060\u2060, and for the past week in my head I\u2019ve been telling myself I\u2019m running 19.75 and obviously \u2013 19.67 \u2013 you\u2019ve got to love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Australia\u0092sGout Gout and his compatriots compete in the men\u2019s 200m final [David Gray\/AFP]Who is Gout Gout?<\/p>\n

Born to Monica and Bona on December 29, 2007, he is one of seven siblings in the Gout family who migrated to Australia from South Sudan in 2005 and settled in the eastern state of Queensland.<\/p>\n

In Gout\u2019s hometown Ipswich, Queensland, his school\u2019s experienced track and field coach Diane Sheppard swiftly took the young boy under her wing upon spotting his talent.<\/p>\n

His first taste of success came at the age of 13, when he won the 100-metre and 200-metre races in a school competition, but the lanky teenager remained humble and earned plaudits from his coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest thing with the kids is about being humble, and he has got it in bucket loads,\u201d Sheppard told Australian Athletics in 2022.<\/p>\n

Despite his rapid rise on the track, it was not until December 2024 that the rest of the world took notice of his prodigious talent.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old burst onto the scene when he clocked 20.04 seconds at the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships.<\/p>\n

It shattered Peter Norman\u2019s national record of 20.06 from the 1968 Olympics and was the quickest ever by a 16-year-old.<\/p>\n

He had improved to 20.02 but had never gone below 20 seconds legally before.<\/p>\n

Kennedy pulls out<\/p>\n

Gout\u2019s run came on the final day of competition, after his main rival, Lachlan Kennedy, pulled out of \u2060\u2060the 200m race as a precaution, with his management citing the need to manage his workload early in a long season.<\/p>\n

Kennedy nonetheless underlined his form \u2060\u2060by winning the 100 metres in 9.96 seconds on Saturday, repeating \u2060\u2060the time he ran in the heats to become the first Australian to break 10 seconds on home soil.<\/p>\n

His withdrawal denied fans a cracking race after last month\u2019s Maurie Plant Meet, when Kennedy won his duel with Gout.<\/p>\n

\"Australia\u0092sGout Gout poses with the race clock showing his record-breaking time [David Gray\/AFP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gout Gout\u2019s breaks the under-20 world record for 200m, while also making him faster than Usain Bolt at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,5654,64,63,44,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-602484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-athletics","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602484","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=602484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}