- Gout Gout comfortably won under-20s 100m final
- Glided across Brisbane track, recorded a slick 10.38
- Young gun will look to also claim 200m final on March 16
Teenage sprinter Gout Gout has continued his sparkling form following a head-turning performance at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane.
Three months after breaking the Australian 200m record at the same track, the rising star warmed up for the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne by claiming the state under-20 100m crown on Saturday.
He revealed he has been targeting the meet on March 29 for something special so he is in the middle of a heavy training block.
Still, the 17-year-old clocked 10.39 seconds into a slight headwind in his heat before running 10.38 seconds in the final.
‘It is one of the top 10 times of my career, so I couldn’t be happier,’ he said post race.
The Queensland sprinter set a wind-assisted 10.04 seconds personal best at the Australian All Schools Championships in Brisbane last year.
His top legal time is 10.17 which puts him in the selection frame for the world championships in Japan in September.
Gout recently returned from a Florida training camp where he trained with Olympic champion Noah Lyles and the American’s coach Lance Brauman.
Teenage sprinter Gout Gout has continued his sparkling form after winning the under-20 100m final at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane (pictured)
The 17-year-old clocked 10.39 seconds into a slight headwind in his heat before running 10.38 seconds in the final
The gains he made in that brief stint were not so much physical.
He concentrated on adding psychological muscle to an already impressive mindset that has had to cope with extraordinary public focus.
Although still in high school, he is racing against men, has signed a long-term sponsorship deal with sportswear giant Adidas and faces enormous expectation every time he competes.
The experience with Lyles exposed him to a larger-than-life character with a proven record for converting pressure into stellar performance.
‘I just learnt to be myself and follow my processes,’ Gout said.
‘You can do all the work in the world, but if you’re in good mental shape you’ll be right.’
Gout’s next target will be his first 200m race of the season at the Queensland Championships in Brisbane on Sunday.
