Before lining up in Perth on Thursday night, Australian schoolboy sprint star Gout Gout had never surpassed the enchanted 10-second mark in the 100-meter race. Then, in two hours, the 17-year-old broke the barrier twice. However, on both occasions, he was helped by a breeze that was too strong to be permitted on the exciting opening night of the Australian athletics championships.
In the under-20 heats, Gout clocked 9.99 seconds with a wind of +3.5 metres per second at his back
With the help of a wind speed of +2.6 meters per second, the Ipswich product once more stopped the clock at 9.99 in the final. The wind gauge had recorded a valid wind reading of +1.4 metres per second in the under-20 women’s 100m heats just a few minutes before Gout’s heat. A few minutes prior to the men’s final, the wind gauge once more gave a reading of +1.4 for the under-20 women’s final, as fate would have it on a cruel night.
After the final, Gout remarked, “It’s frustrating.” However, you are powerless over things that are beyond your control, and the wind is undoubtedly beyond your grasp. All you need to do is figure out whether to run with it or against it. Gout flung his arms in the air, pounded his chest, and let out a jubilant roar when he looked at the clock after the final and saw the numbers 9.99 for the second time that night.
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.
“I saw the clock, I saw it was another sub-10, I was happy, national champion,” remarked Gout. He saved his energy for the climax by jogging the final 20 meters in the heat. In the final, he never gave up and dipped at the line, but the Fremantle Doctor ruined the celebration once more. “It doesn’t feel very special,” Gout remarked after his heat broke the 10-second mark. “I mean, if you want to advance, you need to do these things. Sub-10 [in my career] was unavoidable.
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. Athletics Gout Gout
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