‘Only a matter of time’: Gout Gout stuns with a record-equalling time in the 100 metres

Sprint sensation Gout Gout clocked the equal-fastest legal 100 metres run by an Australian on home soil, notching an even 10 seconds (+0.9) on Saturday in his first race at the distance in 2026.

The teenage superstar is edging closer to legally breaking the magical 10-second barrier after an awesome performance at the Dane Bird-Smith Shield Meet at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.

Gout’s latest time is the same as that of Lachlan Kennedy, who achieved the feat in Perth in April 2025.

Kennedy and Patrick Johnson also ran legal 9.98 and 9.93 secs for the 100m in Nairobi (Kenya) and Mito (Japan) in 2025 and 2003 respectively.

Gout also set an Australian under-20 record in Brisbane on Saturday, eclipsing the 10.15 mark set by Jake Doran in 2018.

The man whose under-20 record Gout broke, fellow sprinter Jake Doran, was quick to congratulate the young Queenslander on Athletics Australia’s Instagram account.

“It was only a matter of time! Proud it took someone of Gout’s calibre to eclipse my mark,” Doran wrote.

Doran is on the comeback trail after rupturing his hamstring last year, so he could still compete against Gout in the future.

With his latest time, Gout sealed his first qualifying performance for this year’s world under-20 championships.

The 18-year-old opted not to compete at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, choosing instead to focus on the 200 metres at the world under-20 championships.

Gout wants to emulate the legendary Usain Bolt at the junior titles in Oregon and Australian Athletics supported his decision.

Before going on to dominate world sprinting and rewrite the record books, Bolt kicked off his career with 200m gold at the 2002 world juniors.

If he triumphs in his pet event, Gout could also become the first Australian to win a sprint gold medal at the junior world championships.

It would be Gout’s biggest accolade yet since the teenager burst onto the global athletics scene less than two years ago.

After breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old 200m national record as a 16-year-old in late 2024, Gout made global headlines in 2025 with a world championships debut and 200m semi-final appearance in Japan.

AAP

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