Australian teenage sprinter Gout Gout set the fourth-fastest under-18 100-meter time in history on Friday. Gout recorded a time of 10.04 seconds at the All-Schools Athletics Championships in Queensland, Australia.
The race, which unfortunately was wind-assisted and won’t count in official records, was also the fourth-fastest ever by an Australian sprinter of any age—and cements Gout as an up-and-coming elite on the world stage.
USATF to Elect New President Amid Budget Deficit Erriyon Knighton set the fastest ever under-18 time of 9.99 seconds, although that run was also wind-assisted. Fellow American runner Jelani Watkins and Thai sprinter Puripol Boonson hold the second- and third-fastest times, clocking 10.02 seconds in 2021 and 2023, respectively.
After the winds died down, Gout ran a 10.17 in the final, which not only counted but was good enough to earn the sixth-fastest legal run time by an under-18. This beat his previous personal best of 10.29 and the previous record, held by Sebastian Sultana, of 10.27.
On Saturday, he turned in another impressive performance. In the 200 meters, Gout stormed to a time of 20.04, breaking Pete Norman’s Australian record of 20.06 from the 1968 Olympics. That makes Gout the second-fastest under-18 runner in the 200 meters, behind Erriyon Knighton (19.84) and one spot ahead of Usain Bolt (20.13).
“I didn’t expect it to be that fast, but I guess I ran Australia’s fastest ever time in the 200,” Gout told Athletics Australia after the race. “I have been chasing that record, but I didn’t think it would come this year. I thought maybe next year or the year after that.”
Gout’s impressive weekend earned attention from an athlete many have already started comparing to the young Australian: Bolt himself.
According to Andreas Trajkovski, who runs the popular Instagram account Jumpers World, Bolt said about Gout, “He looks like young me.”
This isn’t Gout’s first time to turning heads. In 2022, he ran the 100 meters in 10.57 as a 14-year-old. This past August, he ran a 20.60 in the 200 meters at the World Athletics U20 Championships—a mere .01 seconds faster than Bolt managed at age 15.
The up-and-coming sprinter already has an Adidas sponsorship deal in place, and now he’ll get to train with some of the best in the world. “In January, I’m going overseas to train with Noah Lyles and his coach, Lance Brauman,” he told Athletics Australia. “Hopefully, we can qualify for the Tokyo World Championships. If not, I’ll just finish my school in Year 12.”
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Other Hearst Subscriptions and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
