Faster than Bolt: Gout Gout stuns with new national record of 19.67s

Gout Gout has always been compared to Usain Bolt. Now he’s running faster than him.

At the same age, at least.

With a blistering time of 19.67 seconds, teenage sprinting sensation Gout not only broke 20 seconds legally for the first time, he also broke his own Australian record with victory in the men’s 200m at the Australian Athletics Championship on Sunday.

Gout’s time makes him faster than Bolt at the same age, with the legendary Olympian running 19.93s at age 18 in 2004. It was a world record at the time.

Now, Gout has a world record of his own, with Sunday’s result setting a new men’s 200m under-20s mark. Only American sprinter Erriyon Knighton, who was 18 when he ran 19.49s in 2022, has run faster, but the time was not ratified as a record because he failed to meet anti-doping requirements.

Gout’s time also sends a warning shot to his international rivals, with the teenager opting to compete at the World Athletics U20 Championships later this year instead of the Commonwealth Games.

And Gout says he has got more in the tank. And not just in the remainder of his career – he’s got more in the tank this year.

“I mean, I’m still only 18 – just turned 18, so I definitely think I can go faster for sure,” Gout said after his win. “It’s just about building, getting that consistent sub-20, that’s all it is.”

Bolt holds the world record in the 200m at 19.19s, which he set at the age of 22 in 2009.

Bolt won his first 200m Olympic gold medal as a 21-year-old in 2008, and entered those Games with a personal best of 19.67s – the same as Gout’s time on Sunday. Bolt then ran an incredible 19.30s in Beijing to win gold and break the world record.

Sunday is the first time Gout has run under 20s legally, after he ran 19.84s to win last year’s nationals – but with an illegal tailwind. With a legal tailwind of 1.7 metres a second and running on Sydney Olympic Park’s newly laid track, Gout broke his own record of 20.02s.

It was a cool and windy day in Sydney. In other words, conditions were not ideal to break national or international records.

But when Gout looked outside and saw the sun shining, he knew he could achieve greatness.

“It’s been in my mind this whole year, these past couple of months, so glad I got it for sure,” Gout said.

“I wrote down 19.75, and for the past week in my head I would tell myself, I’m running 19.75, and obviously 19.67, so you know, got to love it.”

Gout was denied the opportunity to get one over rival Lachlan Kennedy, who withdrew from the men’s 200m after making his own history with two sub-10s runs in the 100m, on Friday and Saturday.

Kennedy beat Gout in their most recent race at the Maurie Plant Meet last month.

“Lachy not running, I guess I got to step up for both of us for sure, and I guess that’s why I did,” Gout said.

Instead, it was South Australian sprinter Aidan Murphy who was Gout’s surprise competitor, with the 22-year-old also running the race in a personal best time of 19.88 seconds.

Murphy led Gout at the 100m mark but the 18-year-old stormed home for the final 100 of the race.

“It definitely felt like I had a lot more in the tank, for sure,” Gout said. “I just kept pushing it and the time shows.”

At 18, the rising star said he’s getting faster as he gets stronger.

“I’ve definitely been in the gym, and that’s been a major factor of my race for sure; knowing that the stronger I get, the better my first 100 [metres of the race] is going to be,” he said.

Until Gout finally broke it in 2024, Peter Norman’s time of 20.06s – run at the 1968 Olympics – stood as Australia’s longest-standing national record for decades, with dozens of elite stars unable to run faster.

Gout and Murphy both beat the fastest 200m time run in Australia (19.92s), set by Frankie Fredericks in 1999. The Sydney Olympic gold medal for the men’s 200m was won by Greek sprinter Konstantinos Kenteris in 20.09s.

The silence at Sydney Olympic Park as Gout lined up for the final was chilling, and a shock to the system following the screams that had rung throughout the stadium moments earlier when Jess Hull crossed the line to claim victory in the women’s 5000m final – two days after the Olympic silver medallist crashed out of the women’s 1500m in a nasty fall.

Hull withdrew from the women’s 800m after pulling up sore and said coming out on Sunday was just as much about overcoming the mental barriers as it was the physical.

“It’s tough, it happens. You just want a fair race. If you get beat fair and square, you can live with that, but when it gets taken out of your hands, it’s a bit hard,” Hull said

Hull also denied reports there was a rift between her and Athletics Australia, and said those rumours had come from someone “trying to create a fracture that doesn’t exist”.

“I have no idea where that’s come from,” Hull said.

“I am so supported by our high-performance unit ... From my camp and me, I’d really like to shut it down because I am so supported by Athletics Australia, and I have been my whole career.”

Gout and Hull’s results capped another remarkable day in Sydney, which also included Peter Bol winning the men’s 800m and Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers claiming victory in the women’s high jump.

With the national championships wrapped up, Commonwealth Games Australia were able to name their first athletes for Glasgow 2026, which begins on July 23.