Days after struggling in his European debut, Gout Gout has rebounded in striking fashion, finishing third on the heels of world champion Noah Lyles as he broke a world record.
This time Gout Gout looked like Gout Gout. Over the rare hybrid distance of 150 metres at the Ostrava Golden Spike event in Czechia, the teenager ran 14.96s – a national record and personal best. Lyles won in 14.67s, a world record.
“This is definitely a race I was needing after Oslo, and I am glad I got it, and I am ready for more,” Gout told Mitch Dyer of Straight At It.
“Usually when I get a bad start it’s hard for me to come back, but today I got an OK start and I brought it home.”
Unlike last week when the track swallowed him in the home straight, this time Gout ran out of track.
Last week in Oslo he tightened up in his first Diamond League meet and could not find his gears as he ran a sluggish 20.6s for the 200m.
This race in Czechia looked more like a Gout race. He came from deep in the field off the bend and squeezed up on Lyles through the last 50m. He never starts well, but his trademark is the second 100m when he holds his pace and moves sharply through a tiring field, and here he kept closing right to the line, even on the new world record holder.
What might have been had this been a 200m against the Olympic star and training partner Lyles.
Across the line, the pair – who are clearly friends having spent time at length over the last two years training together with Lyles mentoring his young adidas stable partner – celebrated together, slapping hands and high-fiving in obvious joy. The relief for Gout was clear after the experience in Oslo.
The race should go a significant way to quietening the brutal critics, mainly in the trash-talking US, about the world junior record holder backing up his form away from Australia. But social media critics such as those who Gout has attracted seldom rely on facts.
It had always looked a grasping line of attack to criticise an 18-year-old world record-holder in that way and Gout’s Golden Spike effort shows how thin it was.
This was a performance that will generate huge confidence for the season ahead to know he has done it against some of the world’s best men in a strong field at a marquee Europe event. He also knows that he only gets stronger through the back end of his race so will be encouraged by what this could mean for world juniors in August in Oregon, where he is chasing gold.
In another outstanding performance, Australia’s Peter Bol set a new Oceania record time of 2 minutes 15.13s to win the 1000m against a high-quality field.
More to come
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Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.Connect via X or email.
