PERTH: Aussie schoolboy sprint sensation Gout Gout had never broken the magical 10-second mark in the 100 metres before lining up in Perth on Thursday night.
The 17-year-old then proceeded to shatter the barrier twice in two hours.
But on both occasions on a pulsating opening night of the Australian athletics championships, he was aided by a wind too gusty to be legal.
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In the under-20 heats, Gout clocked 9.99 seconds with a wind of +3.5 metres per second at his back.
In the final, the Ipswich product again stopped the clock at 9.99, aided by a wind of +2.6 metres per second.
Only a few minutes earlier than Gout’s heat, the wind gauge had registered a legal wind reading of +1.4 metres per second in the under-20 women’s 100m heats.
And as fate would have it on a cruel night, the wind gauge again produced a reading of +1.4 for the under-20 women’s final, run a few minutes before the men’s final.
Gout Gout in action in the final. Getty
“It’s frustrating,” Gout said after the final.
“But you can’t control what you can’t control, and the wind is obviously something you can’t control. You’ve just got to learn to run with it or run against it.”
When Gout glanced at the clock following the final and saw the numbers 9.99 for the second time in the night, he threw his arms in the air, beat his chest and roared with jubilation.
Twenty or so seconds later, it dawned on the teen superstar and the wide-eyed thousands watching on that he’d again been dudded by wind.
Gout Gout after the final. Getty
“I saw the clock, I saw it was another sub-10, I was happy, national champion,” Gout said.
He jogged the last 20 metres of the heat, reserving energy for the climax.
He never let up in the final, and dipped at the line, only for the Fremantle Doctor to again spoil the party.
“It doesn’t feel very special,” Gout said after breaking the 10-second barrier in his heat.
“I mean, this is the stuff you have to do to get to the next level. Sub-10 was inevitable [in my career].”
Only one Australian in history has broken the iconic 10-second barrier in legal conditions.
Patrick Johnson clocked 9.93 with a wind of +1.8 metres per second in Japan in 2003.
In 2021, six months before reaching the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics, Rohan Browning clocked 9.96 in Wollongong, helped by an illegal wind of +3.3.
Gout will compete in the open division in his pet 200m event at the national championships.
His heat is scheduled for 12.45pm Sunday Perth time and the final 3pm.
He is set for a rematch with fellow Queenslander Lachlan Kennedy — the 21-year-old who trumped him by four hundredths of a second in Melbourne late last month.
