Australian wonderkid Gout Gout has expressed ambitions of beating Noah Lyles at this year’s World Championships having had an opportunity to train with the US sprinter.
Australian wonderkid Gout Gout has been compared to Usain Bolt and he looks very much the part given his aura and confidence just like the Jamaican legend.
Gout Gout was recently in the United States where he joined world and Olympics 100m champion Noah Lyles in training under the American sprinter’s coach Lance Brauman in Florida.
The trip was sponsored by Adidas, who handed the teenager a contract last year, some months before his 17th birthday.
While in the United States, Lyles was impressed by what he saw and heard as the young man, who broke Usain Bolt’s 200m record for 16-year-olds when he ran 20.04 seconds, a day after running 10.04 seconds in 100m, who expressed ambitions of beating him not in future but now.
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“I am trying to show you what’s up. I am trying to come out with a bang,” Gout told Lyles on Beyond the Records podcast, hosted by the Olympics champion and his fellow sprinters Rai Benjamin and Grant Holloway, in regards for his plans for this year.
The teen star is looking at representing Australia at this year’s World Championships in Tokyo, Japan and wants to beat Lyles at the event where the American will be defending his 100m and 200m titles.
“That’s what I love to hear,” Lyles replied to the highly ambitious teenager, who went on about his dreams for the year.
“Whatever I’ve got to do to show Noah I am coming for that spot [I will do]. Obviously, it’s a learning experience but deep down, I’m trying to get a medal for sure or even make that final and be running up Noah or trying to chase Noah down for sure.”
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Who excactly is Gout Gout? The Australian sprinting wonderkid set to start training with Noah Lyles and is earning comparisons to Usain Bolt?
It is the sort of talk that Lyles wants to hear as he feels track and field has been missing it for long and he weighed in while giving Gout some piece of advice.
“I want you to come up to me and say, ‘Yeah I am going to take your spot’. Because if I hear somebody [who] is like, ‘Well maybe one day …’ No! It’s not one day, it’s going to be today and if it’s not today it’s the next day,” said Lyles.
“And I’ll be here every step of the way, like come on don’t be scared to tell me your dream. Shout it from the top of the mountains. Come after me.”
Such is the ambition of Gout that he can talk straight up to the biggest star of the sport and the level of confidence adds spice to what has been said and is expected of him.
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Gout has since returned to Australia where he has started year 12 in school but the world will be watching keenly to see if he lives up to the billing in Tokyo come September.
