WATCH: 16-year-old Australian sprinter Gout Gout stuns the world with blistering 10.2s 100m and clinches victory with formidable lead

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Aug 24, 2024 10:38 GMT

A video of Gout Gout of Australia dramatically outrunning his competitors is catching plenty of attention. The video of the 16-year-old sprinter from South Sudan has been shared widely on social media. In the video, he can be seen speeding away from his competitors before the halfway mark and continuing his run off the track after the finish line.

In the video shared by popular game designer Del Walker on X [formerly Twitter], Gout can be seen racing in a 100m event. For the first 40 meters, he is running neck and neck with the others and then all of a sudden he sprints ahead of his competitors. By the time he crosses the finish line, he is at least 10 yards ahead of his nearest competitor.

You can see the video of Gout's race below":

The young Australian sprinter earlier clocked a timing of 10.29 seconds when won the 100m race held at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre in Brisbane, Australia in March this year.

It is because of these performances that Gout Gout has been selected to represent Australia at the upcoming Junior World Championships, which will be held at Lima in Peru from 27 to 31 August.

Gout is only 16 years old, and one can only wonder what he will do when he participates in senior events such as the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

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Gout Gout's performances leading upto World U-20 Championships

Gout Gout [in center] during a practice session (Source: Athletics Australia)

Born to Monica and Bona in 2007, Gout Gout is a 17-year-old Australian of South Sudanese origin, who has been breaking records since he was just 14, running the 100m in 10.57s at that age.

At 15 years old, Gout broke the under-18 Australian national record for the 200m. He clocked 20.87 seconds as he broke the record at Brisbane in 2023.

In an interview with news.com.au after this race, Gout said,

"It means a lot because I've been training so much for this. I was really nervous. The gun went, and I was good, and I just kept pushing. It's like you can't feel any ground contact, it feels like you are floating."

Interestingly, this was close to Usain Bolt's personal best at the same age level. When he was 15 years old, Bolt had recorded a personal best of 20.58 seconds, wind-aided.

Gout's previous best in the 100m was 10.41 seconds, which he clocked at the Denis Boyd Shield Athletic Meet held at Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre in Brisbane in January 2024. The same day, he clocked 20.69s in the 200m.

However, a few months later, at the Queensland Athletic Championships, Gout bettered his records in both events. While he clocked 10.29 seconds in the 100m, he improved his record to 20.68 seconds a day later in the 200m event, on March 17, 2024.

A couple of weeks before the Paris Olympics, in July 2024, Gout ran a Coast 2 Coast race, clocking 21.08 seconds in the 200m. It will be interesting to see if the Australian sprinter can replicate these peformance levels at the upcoming Junior World Championships in Lima.