Gout Gout’s manager has tried to avoid the ‘next Usain Bolt’ tag for his client, but admits it is difficult to quell expectations for the ‘special’ sprinter.
The 16-year-old Australian has been making a name for himself on the athletics scene since clocking a time of 10.57s in the 100m at just 14 years old.
In March this year he took his personal best over 100m down to 10.29s at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane and has since set a new PB over 200m.
Racing at the Queensland All Schools Track and Field Championships this month he ran the 200m in just 20.29s, setting an Australian Under-20 and U-18 record.
The incredible prospect became the fourth-fastest Under-18 over 200m in history, only behind Erriyon Knighton, Bolt and Puripol Boonson.
Huge things are expected of the teenage sensation, with Adidas already recognising his talents and signing him up.
His manager, James Templeton, says he has done his best to keep him out of the limelight but it is becoming increasingly difficult.
‘I’ve avoided using the “UB” comparison. I think that’s unfair to a young athlete,’ Templeton said on the ABC Sport Daily podcast.
‘For 18 months I’ve basically said a blanket “no” to every media outlet in Australia that has asked. We just want to allow him to be a normal kid at school. We don’t want him to have any distraction.
‘It’s all going to be ahead of him. We want his life to be as normal as possible for as long as possible.
‘But the modern world with viral videos, despite saying no to media he has gone viral and everybody is starting to get to know him.’
Templeton, though, would not deny that he thinks Gout will be competing for the biggest honours in the sport in the future.
‘Having seen a lot of great young athletes and sprinters over the years, I’m firmly convinced he has that something a little bit special to kick through to the very highest levels,’ he said.
There will be no rush with the Australian, who was born in Queensland to parents from South Sudan, as his manager says the next big target is the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2026 in Eugene,
‘2026 will be a great year, and the big event for him is the World Juniors,’ Templeton said. ‘He broke through to an extent this year and the 2026 version in Eugene, Oregon, and that’ll be a wonderful event.
‘Unfortunately it clashes with the Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth hasn’t quite looked at the calendar in the way that we look at the calendar, so we’re going to have to make a choice between the two.
‘At this stage, it looks like the World Juniors are going to be our priority, which is bitterly disappointing.’
Gout ran at the World U20 Championships this year in Lima, winning a silver medal in the 200m.
He broke the Jamaica legend’s 200m record for U16 level at this year’s U20 World Championships and Australian Olympic hero Sally Pearson recently suggested that ‘maybe we are seeing the next Usain Bolt’.
‘What you see of him on those videos is pretty impressive and, god, he’s going to be at the ripe age for the Brisbane Olympics coming around in a home country,’ Pearson said.
‘God, he’s just going to set the world on fire, I think.
‘He’s doing the blue-riband events, as well, which everyone wants to see, so that’s going to take a lot of, I think, courage from him to be able to step up and have that belief in him, which he obviously already does, but to hold onto that all through a couple of Olympic cycles that we’re going into [leading up to] Brisbane.
‘I think it’s very special for Australian sport and the Australian community to be able to see someone who could be quite dominant in Brisbane in the blue-riband events in the athletics. It’s going to just be electric.’
Responding to the comparisons to Bolt, Gout said: ‘It’s pretty cool.
‘Usain Bolt is arguably the greatest athlete of all time and just being compared to him is a great feeling.
‘Obviously, I’m Gout Gout so I’m trying to make a name for myself. If I can get to the level he was, that would be a great achievement.’
