Gout Gout’s electrifying performances have left the American sprint legend in awe, questioning whether the young star should go pro or continue dominating his age group.
Gout Gout was in a class of his own this past weekend competing at the Queensland Athletics Championships on Sunday.
The 17-year-old set a blazing world-leading time of 20.05 seconds in the 200m semifinal, surpassing the previous time of 20.13 seconds set by Makanakaishe Charamba of Zimbabwe, who competed in Texas last month.
Gout Gout threw down the gauntlet in the final, becoming the first Australian to go under 20 seconds in the 200m as he clocked a wind-assisted 19.98 seconds. However, that time has since been confirmed as illegal due to a +3.6m/s tailwind.
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His dominant exploits have gotten people talking and American sprint legend Justin Gatlin has also weighed in. The 2004 Olympic 100m champion revealed that Gout Gout is an exceptional athlete who continues to amaze him with his strikingly fast times.
Gatlin revealed that it can be confirmed that he has no competition in Australia and with such an epic talent, the dilemma is whether to allow him to go professional as soon as possible or just let him enjoy competing against his age mates.
“They weren’t even in the screen, like when the TV was punning and you were watching him pulling away from the field like he was in the screen by himself. He is on a different level than those kids, that’s all it is man,” Justin Gatlin said on the Ready Set Go podcast.
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“And, I don’t know where do you go from here as Gout Gout? Where do you go? You’re annihilating the competition throughout your whole country by far, by two seconds or more. So what do you do now?
“Do you put him on an international level where he races athletes of his calibre or do you just kind of let him be the king of his domain until he is ready to go professional? The competition is not even close and he can’t even have one guy to match up to his competition.”
Gout Gout broke into the sprinting scene in 2024 following the impressive runs that went ahead to earn him a silver medal in the 200m at the World Under-20 Championships.
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He rounded up his season stunningly, breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old 200m national record, after he clocked 20.04 seconds. Gout Gout also ran faster than Usain Bolt’s time at the same age.
In 2025, his main focus will be on challenging greats like Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo who have for long dominated the 200m. He also has plans to make the cut to the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan in September.
