Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout will take his next steps onto the global stage tonight, making his world championships debut in the 200 metre heats in Tokyo.
The precocious 17-year-old – born to South Sudanese parents who fled the war-torn country via Egypt and arrived in Australia in 2006 – runs in heat five of six (estimated start time 9:43pm AEST).
The first three of each heat plus the six-fastest times qualify to the semi-finals, meaning to guarantee qualification, Gout must beat one of three men with a personal-best time under 20 seconds – Zimbabwe’s Makanakaishe Charamba, Jamaica’s Bryan Levell, and Blessing Akwasi Afrifah.
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Three-time defending champion Noah Lyles (heat four) and Olympic gold medallist Letsile Tebogo (heat six) may claim they have the right to be considered Usain Bolt’s heirs.
However, for many the tall and rangy Gout is the one who has the raw potential to become the undisputed superstar of sprinting to succeed Bolt.
The Jamaican eight-time Olympic gold medallist and still the 100m and 200m world record holder retired in 2017.
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Gout ran 20.04sec at last year’s Australian All Schools Athletics Championship, only the second athlete to record a time faster than Bolt’s Under-18 best of 20.13sec.
In doing so he also broke the 56-year-old Australian national senior record set by the late Peter Norman when he took bronze in the 1968 200m Olympic final.
In June, Gout lowered it further by clocking 20.02sec at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava.
Bolt has taken a liking to Gout, posting a photograph of them together with the caption: “He looks like young me.”
However, the 39-year-old Jamaican has also warned that huge potential does not always translate into success.
“It’s always easier when you’re younger,” Bolt told reporters in Tokyo.
“I used to do great things when I was young. But the transition to senior from junior is always tougher. It’s all about if you get the right coach, the right people around you, if you’re focused enough.
“So there will be a lot of factors that will determine if he’s going to be great and continue on the same trajectory.”
Gout, whose family keeps him grounded despite the glare of publicity – he still shares a room with his “messier” older brother Mawjen – admits comparisons with Bolt are daunting.
“In the moment it feels great because everyone wants to be compared to Usain, but at times it does get a bit overwhelming,” Gout says on his Australian Athletics profile page.
“Although I do run like Usain Bolt, I do maybe look like him in a couple of ways, I’m just trying to be myself.”
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Gout, who will return to school after the championships and wants to study psychology at university, will receive all the help he needs to remain himself from his father Bona, mother Monica and six siblings.
Both parents have tried to provide as much as they can for their children. Former law student Bona is a food technician and earns extra income by driving an Uber, and Monica is a cleaner.
It is Bona who has led the battle to restore the family’s name to Guot. James Templeton, the sprinter’s manager, insists otherwise.
“Gout Gout is how it’s going to be,” Templeton told SEN.
“You know the thing you hope to avoid in your ankle? That’s how it’s pronounced.”
Bona is adamant that Sudanese officials made a spelling error in Arabic on the paperwork when the family left for Egypt and is furious to be associated with the arthritic disease.
“His name is Guot, it’s supposed to be Guot,” Bona told 7NEWS last December.
“I know that Gout Gout is a disease name but I don’t want my son to be called a disease name… it’s something that’s not acceptable.
“It’s culturally very important and in particular if (family) see Guot Guot running they connect to the name.
“But when they hear Gout Gout they’ve lost the meaning of it.
“His mum is calling him Guot and the same here, I call him Guot.”
Whatever the outcome, the youngster’s growing fanbase is already quipping that he is “Gout of this world”.
Tokyo could be the beginning of a road which climaxes with gold at his home Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.
The World Athletics Championships can be watched on Nine and SBS in Australia.
– with AFP
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