Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout is poised to be a headline act at next year’s Maurie Plant Meet, the annual outdoor track and field event held at Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadium.
As sports fans continue to digest the 16-year-old’s stunning record-breaking 200-metre victory at the Australian All-Schools championship on Saturday, the country’s newest sporting hero took time out on Tuesday to take in some adulation from young fans and have a brief training session with Australian teammate and middle distance runner Peter Bol.
Gout has a few more weeks before he turns 17 and has year 12 school commitments next year, but what he was planning for 2025 already has a different complexion.
After burning through his 200m final in 20.04 seconds at the weekend – breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old Australian record – athletics aficionados across the globe are quickly learning about the teenager from Ipswich.
None other than Olympic great and three-time 100m gold medallist Usain Bolt have woken up to Gout’s potential. For the Jamaican it took just five words. “He looks like young me,” Bolt wrote on Instagram.
Gout and Bol were at George Knott Reserve in Clifton Hill on Tuesday, taking part in a light training session otherwise known as a “shakedown” session.
Peter Bol and Gout Gout. The friends are both sponsored by Adidas.Credit: Eddie Jim
The two Australian runners met at last February’s Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne and share adidas as a sponsor.
Gout’s manager James Templeton confirmed to this masthead that the athlete, who is Australian born but of South Sudan heritage, was tracking towards competing at next year’s Maurie Plant event, to be held in March.
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