Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout has silenced his critics after his career-best performance was officially declared a world record. The 18-year-old Queenslander clocked 19.67 seconds in the 200 metres at the national championships in Sydney on April 12, becoming the first Australian to legally break the 20-second barrier over the distance.
His time shaved 0.02 seconds off the previous under-20 world record set by American sprinter Erriyon Knighton in 2022. Gout also surpassed Usain Bolt’s best under-20 mark of 19.93 seconds, set in 2004.
On Tuesday, World Athletics confirmed in a press release that Gout's time had been ratified, along with five other world records. Gout celebrated the news with a simple tick emoji on Instagram.
The confirmation came after Gout’s performance drew skepticism from Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, who questioned the validity of the achievement on home soil. “You’ve got to do it outside of Australia. Show us you can do it outside Australia. That’s the thing,” Gatlin said. “You can run fast in comfort, everyone can run fast in comfort. But can you run fast in discomfort? That’s where it’s at. That’s going to be a challenge for him because he’s so used to running in Australia.”
When asked about Gatlin’s comments, Gout fired back, suggesting jealousy was a motivation. “There’s always going to be haters. If there’s haters, it means you are doing something right,” Gout said. “It is what it is. I never take it to heart so I just keep running. It was pretty fast so that’s probably why they were mad. It motivates me to do an even bigger race and run even faster.”
Gout will have his chance to perform outside Australia at the Diamond League in Oslo on June 10, as he builds towards the under-20 world championships in the United States in August.
