A Teen Sprint Sensation Makes History
Teen sprint megastar Gout Gout, soaking up the rapture of the crowd at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, beat his chest and roared three befitting words. “I … AM … HIM!” the 18-year-old declared, high on sprinting superstardom. In other words: I am the man, or I am that guy, or I am the real deal.
After the run he unleashed on a sunbathed Sunday afternoon at the Australian athletics championships – a 19.67-second 200 metres – who could doubt him?
His coach Di Sheppard – the elderly lady who spotted him hurtling across the playground in year seven at Ipswich Grammar School, knew right away she’d unearthed a gem and has coached him ever since – woke up on Sunday morning thinking he may be able to crack 20 seconds for the first time. He had run 19.84 prior to Sunday but in illegal wind conditions.
The man of the moment – who is barely a man, having only graduated from year 12 in November and turned 18 in December – went to the Notes app on his phone prior to the final and jotted down 19.75. He’d had that time in his head all week, and on the newly re-laid, bright blue track, he was ready to turn vision into reality.
That he then stopped the clock at 19.67 – not only obliterating his 20.02 national record and the fastest time Usain Bolt ran as a teenager, 19.93, but Erriyon Knighton’s world under-20 record, 19.69 – was, and still is, hard to fathom.
The first time that flashed on the screen was 19.68. WHAT ON EARTH?!
The roars and cheers that had sung to his tune down the straight became one collective, audible gasp, and returned to roars and cheers. Not everyone gasped, but if they weren’t gasping they were silent, left speechless by Gout and the clock.
Crucially, the wind gauge read +1.7 – just inside the +2.0 metres-per-second allowance.
Sheppard watched the race – and it was a genuine race, so phenomenal was the run by the second-placed Aidan Murphy, who also beat Gout’s national record – from beside the commentary box. Shocked and in hysterics, she beat her knuckles against the glass of the box, desperate for confirmation it was a wind-legal run.
She then glanced at the wind gauge and saw the wind was indeed legal.
And, finally, 19.68 was rounded down to 19.67. Into the history books it went.
As Sheppard went scurrying down through the grandstand, Gout’s manager, James Templeton, went bounding across the blue track and into the arms of Gout, erupting like a courtside NBA coach celebrating a match-winning buzzer beater.
Just beyond the finish line was a temporary white-picket fence. Kids had been clamouring behind that fence all weekend, going mad for Lachie Kennedy and Peter Bol, and Jess Hull and Abbey Caldwell, and Nina Kennedy and Ellie Beer.
Gout, as expected, was a bigger hit with the kids than all of them. He is a king on the track and the king of the kids.
Amongst the roars and cheers of the crowd, and the noise of kids shouting out for selfies and his autograph, a beautiful moment was had. The teen sensation and his mother, Monica, shared a long, tight hug. Then his sisters filed through, leaning over the steel fence of the media area and one-by-one hugging their world-famous 18-year-old brother.
Monica and Bona, Gout’s father, have seven kids: in order from youngest to oldest, Bol Gout, Achan Gout, Adit Gout, Atong Gout, Gout Gout, Achel Gout and Mawien Gout.
Gout Gout, his pockets and bank account filled by the $6 million Adidas mega-deal he signed when he was 16, bought a new house for his family this year. They all settled in their new Ipswich home last month, only a short car ride from the house they previously called home.
Gout’s parents fled from South Sudan to Australia via Egypt. They brought this remarkable athletic gift into the world in Ipswich on December 29, 2007.
Amid the fanfare whipped up by Gout on Sunday, the fastest teenager the world has ever seen strutted over to the clock and stood above it. Ever the showman, he leaned on top of the clock – a clock bearing the numbers 19.67 – and pulled a cool-as-you-like pose for the flashing cameras.
“He’s got a touch of Hollywood about him,” Templeton, sparing a couple of minutes to chat amid the chaos, told reporters.
“You’ve got to have as a sprinter. He’s got the right amount of showmanship that you need for the sprints. It’s perfect.”
As Templeton chatted to reporters, legendary commentator Bruce McAvaney, who called the race and is very much a member of Gout’s inner circle, was mollycoddling with Gout’s coach just a couple of paces away.
“Are you too all right?” Templeton exclaimed, tongue-in-cheek.
“If I wasn’t married to Annie I might propose!” McAvaney gushed.
There was another priceless moment midway through Gout’s chat with a heaving press pack.
“Can I get some water?!” Gout said, shrieking with the pizzaz of a movie star as he swung a look behind him.
Cue roars of laughter.
How is Gout finding the astronomical hype?
“At the end of the day it’s only me that steps out on that track, so I just think about myself, think about my training and think about people in my group,” he said.
There’s no hint of the young lad being overawed.
“We’re just bringing him along in the way that we have in the last two years. Nothing changes. It’s not that difficult,” Templeton said.
“Di is grounded, Gout’s grounded, he lives at home with his family, he goes to training, he’s got his same friends. It’s not that difficult.
“There’s a lot on social media but he doesn’t become obsessed by it. It’s all OK.”
Reflecting on the pandemonium that had just broken out, Gout summed it up to a tee.
“It was absolutely insane,” he said, two gold chains, each with a cross, hanging from his neck.
Absolutely insane – it’s a fitting way to describe the journey of the fastest teenager the world has ever seen.
