Sick but still slick: Gout overcomes illness, caps title win with hug from mum

Gout Gout knew he could run fast when things were good. He didn’t know if he could run fast when they were not. Now he does.

Through a weekend of illness, with a fluey head and chest cold that kept him bed-ridden then sleeping for hours between races, Gout won the semi then the final of the 200m at the Queensland Athletics Championships.

He ran a time of 20.42 seconds into a headwind to reaffirm to himself that he has the ability to perform in adversity, and capped his state title win with a hug from his mum, Monica.

“Knowing [that], even if I am sick, I can come out and perform, it definitely builds resilience,” Gout said.

Acknowledging it was only a minor state championship event in front of a smattering of people and not a major title, he nonetheless drew confidence from the lesson that he could push himself when it mattered.

“It was not about times, it was about getting the wins and getting races under my belt. I was a little bit under the weather the last couple of days, but it does not change [the task] – you have to go out there and run your race,” he said.

“It builds resilience knowing if you can do this at a state championships, knowing it is not a major competition, so being sick is not going to affect you too much. But you use it to build resilience, and [I now] know if I can do this at state championships, if unfortunately I got sick at an Olympics or something like that, I can back it up and continue.”

Meanwhile in Adelaide, 18-year-old Daniel Williams ran 1:44.37 for the 800m, marking him as one to threaten the podium at the world under-20’s later this year in the same team as Gout.

Williams beat former national champion Luke Boyes, who ran a personal-best 1:44.38.

“I can’t believe it, I actually can’t believe it,” Williams said.

“Coming into this, I had a massive disappointment in Perth a month ago. I ran about 1:52. To come back and run 1:44 today is just unbelievable. It’s insane, I’m stoked.”

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