Athletics Australia president Jane Flemming has declared the sporting organisation will look to ‘temper’ the hype surrounding teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout.
The 16-year-old smashed Peter Norman’s 56-year Australian All Schools Athletics Championships record in the 200m final last weekend, recording a blistering time of 20.04.
He also clocked a wind-assisted time of 10.04 seconds in his 100m heat, which was the fifth fastest time by an Australian in history in all conditions.
Gout has since become the name on everyone’s lips, with former track star turned TV identity Matt Shirvington suggesting the prodigy has more potential than Olympic legend Usain Bolt.
Flemming – who won gold medals in heptathlon and long jump at the Commonwealth Games – stressed expectations shouldn’t reach manic levels.
‘You can imagine at the moment he’s going to have every sporting code, every agent, every commercial entity, they’ll all be chasing him and he hasn’t even finished year 11,’ she told 2GB’s Wide World of Sports.
Athletics Australia president Jane Flemming has declared the sporting organisation will look to ‘temper’ the hype surrounding teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout
Former track star turned TV identity Matt Shirvington suggested Gout has more potential than Olympic legend Usain Bolt
‘Part of our responsibility as an organisation is to make sure the young man gets to his 30’s in good physical and mental shape so we need to try and temper it…..make sure he gets back to school, hangs out with his mates, has a good time with it all, while still progressing him on the way through.
‘It’s a long road. Rightly so he’ll probably make next year’s world championships and then Olympic Games and another Olympics and maybe another Olympics after that.’
Flemming added Athletics Australia want to see Gout ‘have a long and fruitful career’ – and the young gun is fortunate to have a ‘fantastic coach in Di Sheppard.’
Meanwhile, Bolt himself has responded to the hype surrounding Gout, replying to a post on Jumper’s World with the simple comment: ‘He looks like young me.’
It comes as Athletics Australia general manager of high performance Andrew Faichney said there was no ceiling for what Gout could achieve on the track.
‘He’s a great talent and is being nurtured well,’ Faichney said in a statement.
‘His silver medal at the World Under 20 Championships already showed us that he has what it takes to compete internationally.
‘The world is his oyster and we look forward to seeing what he can do over the next few years as he makes his mark on his first senior teams.’
