Five words: Usain Bolt’s verdict on Gout Gout is in
Australia’s teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout had already gone viral once this year, drawing comparisons to Usain Bolt as he broke a junior record set by the Jamaican superstar.
Then the 16-year-old Queenslander became the talk of the athletics world again last weekend after smashing Peter Norman’s long-standing Australian record in the 200-metre sprint.
Gout Gout poses after a race at the all schools championships last weekend.Credit: Getty Images
Again, his frightening pace and running gait earned comparisons with the great Bolt.
Now the sprint king himself has delivered his verdict on the teenager – and it took just five words.
“He looks like young me,” Bolt wrote on Instagram, in a post shared by athletics page jumpers.world.
To describe Bolt’s sprinting record as impressive is an understatement. He is the world record holder in 100m (9.58s) and 200m (19.19s), has won eight Olympic gold medals and 11 world championship golds. He is also the only person to have won Olympic 100m and 200m titles at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016).
And Bolt was setting records as a teenager himself – records that are now being broken by Gout.
Gout’s 20.04 seconds to win the 200m at the Australian all schools athletics championships on Saturday was quicker than Bolt’s fastest time as a 16-year-old – 20.13s. Bolt ran 19.93 the next year as a 17-year-old.
Earlier this year, Gout broke Bolt’s under-17s world junior championships record for the 200m when he ran second in the final of the same competition, in Peru (the runner who beat him was 18 months older than Gout).
“I just knew he [Bolt] won back in the day, but I didn’t know what time or like how he did it, but one of the news articles said I did it. And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool’,” Gout, speaking about the record-breaking run from earlier this year, told this masthead last week.
“I do see it [the Bolt similarity],” he said. “My stride length is pretty long, my knee height is pretty high and just the amount of tallness I get when I’m running.”
But he takes “the Bolt stuff” with a grain of salt.
“I’m just me trying to be me, trying to be Gout Gout. Obviously, I do run like him. I do sometimes look like him, but obviously, I’m making a name for myself, and I think I’ve done that pretty well. I just want to continue doing that and continue to be not only Usain Bolt but continue to be Gout Gout.”
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