Standout teenage sprinter looks like a star in the making, but let’s give him room to develop rather than piling on the pressure, writes Katharine Merry<

Even before this year started, we were given another reason to get excited about what might lie ahead for the sport of athletics. He might only recently have celebrated his 17th birthday but already Gout Gout has well and truly made headline news.

In case you haven’t heard, this son of South Sudanese parents who was born in Brisbane has been putting in some scorching performances in his homeland. At the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships in December he ran a wind-assisted 10.04 in the 100m heats, the fourth-fastest time in history for an under 18. His legal time of 10.17 in winning the final by the proverbial country mile put him sixth on the all-time list.

His subsequent performance in the 200m, breaking Peter Norman’s 56-year-old national record of 20.07 – set during the Black Power salute final at the 1968 Olympics – with a run of 20.04 caused even more of a stir.

Quite rightly, everyone is getting very excited about him and, predictably, the comparisons with Usain Bolt have flooded in. Even the great man himself has noted the similarities. First of all, there are the rapid times, but his technique is similar too and he is also tall, skinny and gangly, as the young Bolt was, plus he’s doing what Usain did in ripping up the record books.

I have been hugely impressed by the footage of Gout’s wins and his speed in a straight line, flying away from the opposition in the closing stages, is absolutely phenomenal. To my eye, his style looks pretty sound technically and when you add in the fact that he’s a decent starter too then he is arriving in the spotlight from a very, very good place.

He is still some way short of the finished article, though, and there is so much development for him to go through. One area I think he needs to tidy up on is running the bend in the 200m. He’s 6ft 2in at the moment and he hasn’t stopped growing yet. Running the bend is never an easy thing to do when you’re tall and from what I’ve seen it looks like he’s going to have to learn to negotiate it as best he can in races, rather than being able to bulldoze his way through it in the manner that an athlete of shorter stature with a lower centre of gravity might be able to.

Michael Norman is a rarity in being tall but also having the ability to run his bends in a way that is tidy and compact but still quick. I think if Gout can follow that example and tidy that area up a little then it will make a difference – but it will come over time, through experience and increased strength.

Gout seems to have a very good support network already in the form of his coach Di Sheppard, who has done a brilliant job so far, and his manager James Templeton. He is not due to race again until March, too, so I’m really pleased to see that he isn’t being rushed.

I’m very excited about what Gout might be capable of but, as with any young athlete emerging on to the scene, I have to sound a note of caution. We’ve been here before – how many athletes have been dubbed ‘the next Bolt’ in recent years? – so let’s not get carried away and heap lots of pressure on to his teenage shoulders before his career has even really got out of the starting blocks.

I will say, though, that his performances have been great at bringing a bit of media attention back towards athletics during what is a quieter time of year on the track. When the stadium doors are closed in Europe and the indoor season is yet to get fully underway, it has been fantastic to see the sport in the news and for such positive reasons. Here’s hoping Gout can ride that wave of positivity.

Already this is turning into an interesting year for athletics. We have the World Championships as the main event – and who isn’t looking forward to seeing that Tokyo Olympic Stadium full of spectators at last? It will be very different from when I was there stadium announcing at the delayed Olympics, commentating in a mask and dropping off a Covid test every morning at the stadium gates! 

But it feels like the wider landscape is about to start shifting. This year we’ll get our first taste of Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track venture that has been attracting so many big names and looks set to provide what I think is some healthy competition to the Diamond League.

I know Michael has come in for some criticism about there being no field events involved in the series, but I have sympathy for him in this regard. He’s sticking to what he knows and actually putting his head above the parapet, trying to do something different and take the sport forward. He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

World Athletics want to put innovation front and centre, too, and I don’t have a problem with that, as long as it’s some tinkering and experimentation rather than major surgery. There will always be people who don’t like change but my view is that the core of the sport is always going to be there and will still be the foundation stone. It’s not like we’re about to start running the 350m at major championships, for example!

At its heart, athletics is still going to be the same so let’s hope that we’ll have plenty to look back on with pride come the close of 2025.