That Gout won was not really the question by the time the race was run, even though he is a boy and was racing men. He has already scotched concerns that age among his countrymen was an issue, for neither boy nor man can match him over 200 metres.
His keenest rival, Lachie Kennedy false started and was disqualified. Kennedy was already on a warning, so it meant he was eliminated.
Two weeks ago, at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, Gout was upstaged by Kennedy, the 21- year-old who had just won silver at the world indoors.
So the question on this hot Perth afternoon at the national championships was only whether Gout could break 20 seconds. This is the stage he has already reached as an athlete – he is competing against himself more than the field. He is chasing records as much as titles.
“I was very disappointed [to see Kennedy disqualified], you know, because our plan was to send it down off the bend, and hopefully we can both hold on for sub-20,” Gout said.
“Stuff like that happens, and unfortunately, he false started,” Gout said.
As Gout celebrated at the line in jubilation, not shock, at his performance, Kennedy came jogging down the straight to celebrate with him. Gout saw him and ran to him to embrace excitedly over what he had just done.
Gout’s legend has grown to another level.Credit: Getty Images
“I mean, he’s a fellow Queenslander. I’ve been racing against him … it’s definitely great. And just the camaraderie we have amongst all of us is definitely great, and something that will continue to be even greater,” Gout said.
He is still just a boy – he was at school this week doing year 12 studies – and admitted he has to remind himself not to be overawed by the fact he is racing against men. Ironically, the men on the rest of the start line are more overawed at having to compete with the wunderkind.
“At times it gets daunting, because these are maybe 10 years, four years older than me,” Gout said.
“It’s definitely daunting for me. At the end of the day, we all bleed red, and we’re all human.”
The conditions were almost perfect in Perth – it was 31 degrees for the heat earlier in the day, and then it had cooled just slightly to 27 degrees for the final. For the heat, he had a slight wind (+0.6) at his back as he ran 20.21, virtually jogging the last 60 metres once he realised he had safeguarded a place in the finals.
As a 16-year-old at the schoolboys championships in Queensland in December last year he broke Peter Norman’s 200m record that had stood since the Mexico Olympics in 1968. Usain Bolt’s world record for the 200m is 19.19 seconds.
It was a surprise that Kennedy, who narrowly lost to Rohan Browning in the men’s 100m final the night before by just 0.005 of a second, decided to race at all after having run three 100m sprints on the Saturday. He won his heat comfortably, but at the blocks for the final jittered and was called for a false start.
There was then a second false start and the field was recalled before, finally, at a third attempt, the final started. How much energy and tension was wasted from those false starts, and whether the wind would have been legal had they not been delayed by them, was maddening to ponder, but also academic.
What is also now a matter not open for debate is that Gout is the real thing. We are witnesses to greatness emerging in front of us by the race.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
