Sprint sensation Gout Gout has clocked the equal-fastest legal 100m run by an Australian on home soil, notching 10.00 (+0.9) seconds in his first race at the distance in 2026.
Teenage superstar Gout is edging closer to legally breaking the magical 10-second barrier after a wonderful performance at the Dane Bird-Smith Shield Meet at QSAC on Saturday.
Gout’s latest time is the same as that of Lachlan Kennedy, who achieved the feat in Perth in April 2025.
Kennedy and Patrick Johnson also ran legal 9.98 and 9.93 secs for the 100m in Nairobi (Kenya) and Mito (Japan) in 2025 and 2003 respectively.
Gout also set an Australian under-20 record in Brisbane, eclipsing the 10.15 mark set by Jake Doran in 2018.
With his time on Saturday, Gout sealed his first qualifying performance for this year’s world under-20 championships.
The 18-year-old opted not to compete at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, choosing instead to focus on the 200m at the world under-20 championships.
Gout wants to emulate the legendary Usain Bolt at the junior titles in Oregon and Australian Athletics supported his decision.
Before going on to dominate world sprinting and rewrite the record books, Bolt kicked off his career with 200m gold at the 2002 world juniors.
If he triumphs in his pet event, Gout could also become the first Australian to win a sprint gold medal at the junior world championships.
It would be Gout’s biggest accolade yet since the teenager burst onto the global athletics scene less than two years ago.
After breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old 200m national record as a 16-year-old in late 2024, Gout made global headlines in 2025 with a world championships debut and 200m semi-final appearance in Japan.
