Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles has given his opinion on Gout Gout after the Australian teenager was eliminated from the 200m event at the World Athletics Championship.
Lyles won their men's semi-final in Tokyo with a blistering 19.51-second run, the fastest 200m time in the world this year.
Gout Gout's time of 20.36 seconds wasn't enough to secure a place in his first men's final but Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes finished second behind the American to book his lane in Friday's showpiece with his medal hopes intact.
The 17-year-old has been the talk of the sprinting world over the last year thanks to a number of milestones he's been able to reach in competition over 100m and 200m at an earlier age than Usain Bolt.
Advert
With eight Olympic gold medals to his name as well as the men's world records over both distances, the Jamaican is an icon of modern athletics and Gout Gout is tracking ahead of him in some regards.
He's faster than Lyles was at 17 too.
"I mean, he's more talented than I was!" said the laughing final favourite when a reporter asked him about Gout Gout at 17.
"There's been nothing but great talent coming up. He's an amazing kid. He's got a great head on him. He's got a great team around him.
"It's going to be interesting to see how he develops, you know. The thing that I always look for when I'm looking at younger talent is, 'Hey, are you going to be able to just train into shape?' because when you're in high school you're able to just get races all the time whenever you want, but as a pro you've got to come prepared already."
Lyles noted that running within two-tenths of a second of his American record time of 19.31 seconds (the third-fastest time in history) in a semi-final might not have been the smartest move but said he felt good ahead of the final.
He has, he said, enough room to go up another gear.
Who will run in the 200m final?
Lyles' final rivals won't be too happy to hear that.
Along with 30-year-old Team GB sprinter Hughes, the final line-up on Friday will feature 21-year-old Bryan Levell, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, South Africa's Sinesipho Dambile and Tapiwanashe Makarawu of Zimbabwe, all of whom ran under 20 seconds on Thursday.
“Don't miss the final," Lyles said after destroying the field in the semis. "It's going to be magical.”
Topics: Athletics, Gout Gout, Noah Lyles
Chris Nee