The world under-20 200m record-holder picked up a hamstring injury during training in Brisbane.

Gout Gout, the Australian teenage sprint sensation, has had to curtail his 2026 season after tearing his hamstring.

The 18-year-old, who had hoped to compete at next month's World Athletics U20 Championships in Oregon, picked up the injury during training in Brisbane.

An MRI confirmed that Gout suffered a grade 3C partial tear of the proximal biceps femoris tendon, affecting less than 10% of the tendon’s cross-section but spanning eight centimetres in length.

It means he not only has to withdraw from the world junior championships but is also out for the rest of the 2026 season.

Gout said: "I’m very disappointed but I have no other possibility but to accept the situation. I understand this is part of athletics. My focus now will be on my rehab in the coming weeks and months and ensuring I come back in 2027 better and stronger and faster.”

Earlier this year Gout recorded a world under-20 200m record of 19.67 at the Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney.

Not only did he break Erriyon Knighton's ratified junior mark of 19.69 – set at the 2022 USATF Outdoor Championships – but he also went quicker than Bolt in the under-20 category.

Bolt, who won the world junior 200m title on home soil in 2002, clocked 19.93 at the 2004 Carifta Games in Bermuda, which generated headlines around the world.

Last September Gout mad his senior global championships debut in Tokyo, where he advanced through his world 200m heat but failed to reach the final.