Topics: Gout Gout, Athletics, Usain Bolt, Noah Lyles
Gout Gout could follow a precedent set by Olympic champions Usain Bolt and Noah Lyles when it comes to the 100 metres, according to his manager.
Since bursting onto the scene in 2022, the 18-year-old sensation has broken multiple national and under-age records across 100m, 200m, and 400m distances, but his favourite event has been the 200m.
Most notably, he was chosen to represent Australia at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he became the youngest sprinter ever to feature in a World Championships over 200m.
Gout is currently ranked 15th in the world in the event, but he has also shown his capabilities at 100m.
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Last month, at a club athletics meeting in Queensland, he recorded the joint-fastest legal 100m by an Australian on home soil, clocking a time of 10.00 (+0.9) at the meet – a legal personal best.
He also claimed the under-20 Australian record, breaking Jake Doran’s 10.15 time from 2018 to create another piece of history.
Despite being ranked 216th in the world at 100 metres, Gout could improve that time significantly if he follows a precedent set by Usain Bolt and Noah Lyles, according to his manager, James Templeton.
He believes Gout will improve with age, like the previously mentioned Bolt and Lyles.
“It’s hard to say, at the moment the 200m is certainly his main event and focus,” Templeton told SEN.
“But there is a precedent for it. Not only Usain Bolt, who really didn’t take up running the 100m until he was 22-23 years old, but also, Noah Lyles, who didn’t emerge as a 100-metre runner until his early 20s.
“There is a certain power and strength coming out of the glutes, the backside, it’s 'grown man strength' as they call it. That power over the first ten metres emerges over time, and you want it to come naturally."
“You don’t want to try and force it," added Templeton. "You don’t want to be doing an excessive amount of work on the starts, panicking about why he isn’t better over the first ten metres. Just allow it to come and allow the talent to come out of him.”
