Australian teen sprinting sensation Gout Gout has run the fastest 200m by an Australian in 31 years at the All Schools Queensland track and field championships.
Gout was born in Brisbane in 2007 after his parents emigrated from South Sudan.
He ran a personal best of 20.29 seconds in the 200m heat, the fastest time since Dean Capobianco recorded the same time in 1993.
Gout moved to fourth spot on both the Australian all-time senior list and the world overall under-18 rankings on Sunday, while also setting new Australian and Oceania under-18 and under-20 records.
Aidan Murphy previously held the Australian Under-20 record of 20.41.
The 16-year-old Gout — who has been compared to a young Usain Bolt — burst onto the global scene by claiming the silver medal in the 200m at the world junior championships in Peru in August in 20.60.
But Sunday’s flying time of 20.29 was in another league.
The Australian senior 200m record of 20.06 was set way back in 1968 by Peter Norman, who claimed the silver medal at the Mexico City Olympics.
Despite not being able to run faster in the final, winning the race with a time of 20.52, Gout also clinched the 100m sprint in a time of 10.31.
The Australian teenager is tracking well to be a medal chance at big events in the coming years but still has to improve plenty to get there.
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo won the 200m at the Paris Olympics in a time of 19.46, while the current 200m world record of 19.19 is held by Bolt.
Only last week, Gout signed his first professional contract with Adidas, whose stable also includes Olympic 100m champ Noah Lyles from the United States.
