So Good They Named Him Twice: Is Gout Gout the Next Bolt?

Posted on
Track and field on a sunny day

Michael Johnson recently launched his Grand Slam Track league with the stated aim of saving the sport he loves. Many would argue that it doesn’t need saving and long-distance running is probably in a golden era right now, with increased mass participation leading to greater interest in pretty much all events from around the 1500m up.

Track events, and in particular the shorter ones, where mere mortals tend not to compete at a recreational level, have always had their stars. The thrill of seeing the fastest men and women on the planet move with such power and pace is captivating. Giants of male sprinting include Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and, of course, the current 100m and 200m world record holder Usain Bolt. But do we have the next star coming through in Australian youngster Gout Gout?

There must be something in the water in the part of the world because young antipodean athletes have been putting in some genuinely unbelievable performances in 2025. On the 19th of March, Kiwi youngster Sam Ruthe became the youngest person ever to run a sub-four-minute mile. Ruthe was just 15 years old at the time and that incredible run garnered a lot of public attention.

Ruthe has incredible potential and is one to watch in the future, but Gout is very much one to keep our eyes on right now, and hopefully for the next decade and more. He will not turn 18 until three days before the end of 2025 but already he is the fastest Australian ever over 200m. In fact, as well as being the national record holder, his scarcely comprehendible time of 20.04 seconds makes him the Oceania record holder too. Oh, and he was just 16 when he ran that blistering time over 200m!

200m Time Faster Than Bolt


To understand just how incredible that 200m run was, we should note that the Australian record had stood since 1968, when it was good enough to win Peter Norman a silver medal at that year’s Olympics. Indeed, fast-forward 56 years to the Paris games of 2024 and Gout would have finished sixth in the men’s final with his record time. With Letsile Tebogo clocking 19.46 to win gold in an African-record time, it was a seriously quick race, and yet Gout’s time set as a 16 year old would have left him just 0.34 seconds out of the medals.

Further context is provided when we compare Gout’s run to one of Bolt’s great early performances. The Jamaican made his potential very clear when he won gold at the 2003 World Youth Championships with a championship record time of 20.40 seconds. When he was 16 his fastest time in the event was 20.13 seconds, so the sensational Aussie’s run was 0.09 seconds faster than that achieved at the same age by possibly the greatest sprinter of all time. That suggests a pretty high ceiling for Gout and track fans cannot wait to see how things play out in the years ahead.

Breaks 10 Seconds in the 100m


Gout has a similar running style to Bolt and at 6ft 2in is also tall. Also in common with the charismatic Jamaican, he is pretty much equally impressive over 100m as he is over 200m. On the 10th of April, running in the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth, he ran his first sub-10 second 100m. In fact, he managed the feat twice in two hours!

He ran 9.99 seconds in the heat to streak clear of the field (in the 100m he was racing in the under-20 category), easing down in the final strides and not bothering to dip with the race well won. He then ran exactly the same time in the final, the amazing time coming despite a less-than perfect start. Both runs came with illegal tailwinds so will not go down in the record books. However, the fact that he clearly has much more in the tank, and the ease, grace and beauty with which he won both races, will have left a lasting impression on all those who witnessed them.

Quite how fast the Queenslander can go remains to be seen but it is surely only a matter of time before he records fully legal times of less than 20 seconds in the 200m and less than 10 in the 100m. His recent runs make him just the third Australian ever, with any wind, to dip under 10 seconds for the 100m. He also clocked a time of 19.98 seconds in mid-March in the 200m but that was also with an illegal wind of +2.6m/s (+2m/s is the limit).

He was far, far too quick for Australia’s other youngsters over 100m but in the 200m at this meeting he is in the open category, going up against Australia’s best. The 200m will take place on Sunday and fans of sprinting, track and even just running in general, should tune in, with a sub-20 definitely on the cards.

Who Is Gout Gout?


Born in Ipswich, Queensland, on the 29th of December 2007 – yes, 2007! – Gout was unknown to most outside Australian athletics until 2024 when he started putting in performances that attracted global attention. That said, his time of 10.57 at the age of just 14, was also something that made waves among those in the know as early as 2022.

His parents moved Down Under two years before he was born, having fled South Sudan. Although a decent football player as a youth, another similarity with Bolt, Gout realised at a young age where his real talents were. At the age of just 15 he won the national U18 title over 100m, and holds the U16 record for both the 100m and 200m.

He has been training in the US with Noah Lyles and others and clearly has his sights set on Olympic glory in LA in 2024. He will be an ancient 20 by that point, and there is every chance that he will have broken Erriyon Knighton’s U18 200m record of 19.84 (he has already bettered Bolt’s best of 20.13).

Looking further ahead, Gout will still only be 24 when the Olympics come to Brisbane, around 25 miles east of his hometown of Ipswich, in 2032. If he keeps on working hard, what a story that would be if he could claim gold on home soil!