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Gout Gout has become the third Australian to run 100m in less than 10 seconds, and he did it twice within two hours on a dramatic day at the national athletic championships in Perth.
But neither of the teenager’s two times of 9.99s – one in the heat and one in the final – will be formally recorded due to illegal tailwinds.
The 17-year-old easily won the Australian under-20 100m title, but the excitement around his victory in the final was tempered by the wind reading.
As he crossed the line, the screen adjacent to the track flashed 2.6m/s, easily more than the 2m/s limit allowed. Gout’s heat time also had an illegal wind reading of 3.5m/s.
Gout said he felt “pretty good” after the final, and that he wasn’t upset by the conditions that prevented him formally recording a sub-10s time.
“Sometimes it’s frustrating, but you know, you can’t control what you can’t control, and the wind is obviously a thing you can’t control, you’ve got to learn how to run with it or run against it,” he said.
The Australian 100m record was set by Patrick Johnson in 2003, with a time of 9.93s.
Gout is only the third Australian to run the 100m quicker than 10s in any conditions, after Johnson – who went as fast as 9.88s with a 3.6m/s tailwind in Perth a month before he set the Australian record in 2003 – and Rohan Browning, who stopped the clock at 9.96s in Wollongong in 2021, but with 3.3m/s behind him.
Gout chose to contest the under-20 category for the 100m at this meet, while he juggles the opens competition in the 200m in which he holds the national record.
“Sub-10 is something every sprinter hopes for and to get this early in the season is definitely great, so to gain that sub-10 definitely boosts my confidence, especially for my main event the 200,” he said.
At the West Australian Athletics Stadium on Thursday, thousands streamed into the stands in time for Gout’s races, while around 80 journalists and photographers are accredited for the meet, roughly three times the total of last year.
“This is what Athletics Australia needs, this is what we wake up in the morning for, this is what we train for, and I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Gout said.
The Queenslander is due to compete in the opens 200m on Sunday against Lachie Kennedy, the 21-year-old who upstaged Gout at the Maurie Plant meet two weeks ago.
The national 200m record is 20.04s, set by Gout in December.
In the first heat of the highly-anticipated 1500m events, Paris silver medallist Jessica Hull beat Georgia Griffith by a quarter of a second despite challenging preparation.
Hull raced just five days ago at the Grand Slam Track event in Jamaica, before she rushed to back to Australia for this meet, only landing on Monday via New York and Hong Kong.
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In the men’s 1500m, 18-year-old Cameron Myers looked impressive in winning his heat easily in a time of 3:38.20.
National record holder Olli Hoare and last year’s national champion Adam Spencer won the other heats.
Hoare said although each of them have one eye on the world championships in September, Saturday’s final is a chance for them to compete against each other.
“I could go back to the US and get to some hard training, go to some great Diamond League races, but to compete at home and to compete against the talent we have, it’s a disservice to yourself if you’re not competitive,” he said.
Behind Hoare, Paralympian Reece Langdon finished seventh in the heat but set a new world record in the T38 classification, finishing in 3:46.83 and beating the previous mark by around a second.
Langdon said he wasn’t sure whether he would run up until two hours before the race.
“I was vomiting in the shower, crook as a dog and I was almost going to scratch because I’m like, ‘Geez, I don’t want to make a fool myself running something really slow’,” he said.
“Surprisingly, I actually got off the line and I guess that adrenaline kicks in.”
Long jumper Vanessa Low also recorded a world record in the T61 classification, improving her previous mark from 5.45m to 5.71m.
