Australian teenager Gout Gout's meteoric rise in the athletics world continues, as the 16-year-old clocked the fourth-fastest under-18 100m time in history at the All-Schools Athletics Championships in Queensland. Gout, who will turn 17 by the end of December, blazed through the finish line in a stunning 10.04 seconds, comfortably winning his heat and surpassing the Australian under-18 record of 10.27 seconds held by Sebastian Sultana. However, due to an illegal tailwind of 3.4 m/sec on Friday, the previous record remains intact. Nonetheless, Gout's remarkable time shattered his personal best of 10.29 seconds and ranks as the fourth-fastest in all conditions by an Australian of any age.
Patrick Johnson holds the national 100m record of 9.93 seconds, set in 2003 in Japan, and remains the only Australian to break the 10-second barrier. Rohan Browning now stands as the only other Australian to have clocked faster times than Gout, with runs of 10.01 seconds in 2021 and 10.02 seconds last year. Gout will have another opportunity to break the 10-second barrier and join US athlete Erriyon Knighton as the only under-18 sprinter to achieve this feat when the 100m final takes place later on Friday afternoon. Knighton ran the distance in 9.99 seconds with a wind assistance of +2.7 m/s at the age of 17 in 2021.
The Brisbane-based sprinter also holds the Australian under-18 and under-20 records in the 200m, having crossed the line in 20.29 seconds at the Queensland All Schools Athletics Championships—just 0.23 seconds behind the national benchmark set by Peter Norman when he won silver at the 1968 Olympic Games. Usain Bolt holds the 200m world record of 19.19 seconds, set at the 2009 world championships, and ran 20.13 seconds when he was 16. Gout will compete in the 200m event in Brisbane on Saturday.
Born to South Sudanese parents, Monica and Bona, who moved to Australia in 2006 and settled in Brisbane, Gout Gout was born the following year.
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