Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout delivered one of his most impressive performances to date at the Queensland All Schools Track and Field Championships.
The 16-year-old prodigy, who was recently compared to Usain Bolt by Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson, was at his sparkling best in the southern Brisbane suburb of Nathan.
He clocked 20.29s in the 200m heats – a time that would have qualified him for the Olympic final at Paris 2024.
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In fact, he broke Australia's under-20 record over half a lap, thus becoming the fastest Australian since 1993. when Dean Capobianco clocked the same time at the Stuttgart 1993 World Athletics Championships.
As a result of his latest 200m race, Gout Gout moved up to fourth in the under-18 200m all-time list behind Erriyon Knighton (19.84), Usain Bolt (20.13) and Puripol Boonson (20.19).
The teenager also recorded a time of 10.31s in the 100m final. You can check out his 200m sprint below.
Gout Gout, who was born in Brisbane after his parents migrated to Australia from South Sudan, has been tipped for greatness following a series of impressive races.
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However, 100m record holder Usain Bolt recently sent a warning to the 16-year-old after he broke one of his long-standing records.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Bolt opened up on his younger days as a sprinter before he took the athletics world by storm - and indirectly gave Gout a significant piece of advice.
He said: "When I started out, I didn't understand the concept of 'being great' because I was young.
"I was 15 when I won the world juniors, I was really young and I was really talented so I didn't have to work as hard as it was just talent, as I was winning and winning. I remember when I got to the professional level, and I felt like it was just going to be easy.
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"And I got to the stage where I would go to meets and I would lose. And I was like, 'This is strange, this is new'. So it took me a while to understand."
When told about the comparisons between himself and Bolt by Australian media in August, Gout said: "It's pretty cool because Usain Bolt is arguably the greatest athlete of all time and just being compared to him is a great feeling.
"Obviously I'm Gout Gout, so I'm trying to make a name for myself. If I can get to the level he was that would be a great achievement."
Topics: Athletics, Usain Bolt, Olympics
Jack Kenmare