Australian sprinter Gout Gout (© Getty Images)
Gout Gout is moving fast. The clock tells us that: 20.04 for 200m to close out one year, 20.05 to open the next.
Gout’s 20.04 at the Queensland All Schools Championships last year took down the oldest men’s national record on the books, the 20.06 by Peter Norman in the rarefied air of Mexico City to take a silver medal in the 1968 Olympic final.
Crossing the ‘t’ in fast, as it were, Gout ran a wind-assisted 19.98 (+3.6m/s) in winning his Queensland U20 state title on 16 March following a wind-legal 20.05 heat. Few expect the appearance of a legal sub-20 (not to mention a sub-10 100m) to be long delayed.
If you want a further measure of Gout’s progress, take his appearance at the Maurie Plant Classic on Saturday (29), Melbourne’s annual meeting and the first World Athletics Continental Tour Gold fixture of 2025. When he competed in last year’s meeting, Gout finished fifth in the 200m in 21.39. Very good for one just turned 16, but not spectacular.
Twelve months on, however, Gout shares top billing in Melbourne with the likes of Olympic gold medallist Letsile Tebogo and a host of Australia’s growing selection of global medallists including Eleanor Patterson, Matt Denny, Mackenzie Little, Kelsey-Lee Barber, Lachlan Kennedy and Ky Robinson.
The competition comes days after a one-hour current affairs interview with Australia’s foremost Olympic broadcaster Bruce McAvaney which also featured Cathy Freeman, Raelene Boyle and Matt Shervington.
No pressure then, though both in that interview and on the track, Gout shows every indication he can handle whatever is thrown at him.
Bragging rights only for Gout and Tebogo
Gout and Tebogo will not clash directly, but there will be bragging rights at stake. Tebogo, the Olympic 200m champion, has opted for the 400m where his opposition includes Olympic 4x400m silver medal teammates Bayapo Ndori and Leungo Scotch, Australia’s world indoor semi-finalist Cooper Sherman and U20 athlete Terrell Thorne, a fellow-Queenslander who has been chasing Gout home recently.
Gout, on the other hand, faces mainly domestic competition in the Peter Norman 200m though the presence of Japan’s 20.26-man Koki Ueyama, a member of the Olympic 4x100m silver medal team, and his compatriot Yudai Nishi, World University Games silver medallist (20.43), is intriguing. Also competing are Calab Law, 2022 World Championships semi-finalist and world U20 bronze medallist, and world indoor 60m silver medallist Lachlan Kennedy.
Speaking of bragging rights, there’ll be plenty of those on offer in the field events. Little and Barber will be going head-to-head in the women’s javelin: others in the strong field include Japan’s Sae Takemoto, already beyond 60 metres this year, and New Zealand’s consistent Tori Moorby (nee Peeters). Then Olympic bronze medallist Denny will come up against Great Britain’s Lawrence Okoye – already 67.10m in 2025 – and New Zealand’s Connor Bell, who loves upstaging Denny on his home turf, in the discus. Denny has the 70-metre mark in his sights this year and will be keen to approach that sort of form in Melbourne.
Just one miss at 1.92m prevented Eleanor Patterson from sharing the top step on the podium with Nicola Olyslagers in the high jump at the World Indoor Championships last weekend. Patterson is keen to jump high in Melbourne and on paper she should be alone at such heights.
Great depth in distances
Speaking of paper, the entry lists for the middle and long-distance races drip with talent. There’s the usual youth v experience theme – New Zealand’s precocious 15-year-old Sam Ruthe, world U20 indoor 1500m record-holder Cameron Myers, Claudia Hollingsworth, Peyton Craig at the youth end; Stewart McSweyn, Peter Bol, Olli Hoare, Linden Hall, Georgia Griffith – well, they’re older.
There’s men’s and women’s 1500s on the main programme, along with a women’s 3000m and men’s 5000m.
A case could be made for pretty much each entrant winning the John Landy men’s 1500m. Domestically, there is Commonwealth champion Olli Hoare, teen sensation Myers and national champion Adam Spencer with 2023 dual national 1500m/5000m champion Callum Davies not far behind. And what can Peter Bol produce? New Zealand is represented by Sam Tanner and Sam Ruthe who recently became, at 15, the youngest sub-four-minute miler ever. Also in contention will be Japan’s Ryoji Tatezawa and Will Lewis.
The women’s race boasts similar depth. Claudia Hollingsworth will be keen to get a World Championships qualifier in the 1500m this year. There’s no less than three others – Linden Hall, Abbey Caldwell and Sarah Billings – boasting sub-four-minute PBs. With a fast pace to be set, it will take something under four minutes to win.
Off her fourth-place finish at the World Indoors, Oceanian record-holder Georgia Griffith will start as favourite in the women’s 3000m, but there will be any number ready to pounce should she falter. Izzi Batt-Doyle and Rose Davies represented Australia at last year’s Olympics, Senayet Getachew won the U20 race for Ethiopia at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships, and Maudie Skyring, Amy Robinson and Natalie Rule are in good form.
Stewart McSweyn, Jack Rayner, world indoor 3000m bronze medallist Ky Robinson, Ireland’s Brian Fay, Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir Kiplagat and the rapidly emerging Seth O’Donnell are among the leading contenders in the men’s 5000m.
Elsewhere, Rohan Browning, Lachlan Kennedy and Sebastian Sultana are all in the men’s 100m, along with Japanese pair Shoto Uno and Akihiro Shigasida.
The men’s 800m pits national champion Luke Boyes against Olympic semi-finalist Peyton Craig and world U20 representative Daniel Williams. At 21, Boyes is the senior of this trio of young improvers.
Len Johnson for World Athletics
