Australian teenage sprinting sensation Gout Gout has broken the 10-second mark over 100m for the first time – but it comes with a big caveat.
He ran a 9.99 second sprint over the quarter-lap distance but it went down as wind-affected having had a +3.5m/s breeze behind him.
Wind-assisted times are estimated to subtract at least 0.1 seconds from a runner’s pace.
It came at the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth during the under-20 100m heats as he looks to build on months of blistering success.
The 17-year-old has already broken Usain Bolt‘s record held at the same age and it seems that he’s edging closer to more.
Australian presenter and sports broadcaster Bruce McAvaney described the run as ‘extraordinary’ on commentary.
The sprint on Thursday saw Gout eclipse his previous wind-assisted mark of 10.04, which he set at the Australian All School Championships back in December.
His quickest legal time to date stands at 10.17, but with the faster surface out west, there’s every chance he could lower that figure over the weekend as he lines up in the open events too.
So far, Patrick Johnson remains the only Australian to have broken the 10-second barrier under legal conditions, clocking a 9.93 in Japan in 2003.
Lachlan Kennedy – who edged out Gout in the 200m at the recent Maurie Plant Meet – has previously recorded a 10.03, while Rohan Browning ran 10.01 at the Tokyo Olympics.
Gout is set to contest the U20 100m final at 8:37pm AEST, where he’ll have another shot at making history.
Should he dip under the 10-second mark with a legal wind reading, Gout would become the youngest athlete in history to achieve the feat, taking that title from American sprinter Christian Miller.
The teenage sensation already etched his name into the record books last December when he clocked 20.04 in the 200m — making him the fastest Australian ever over the distance and breaking Usain Bolt’s age-group record in the process.
Just last month, the wind played a part in Gout’s 200m time too after he recorded the fastest time of the year.
He clocked an absurd wind-assisted time of 19.98 seconds, but again his time did not officially count as his +3.6 tailwind was over the +2.0 threshold.
However, his time of 20.05s in the 200m heat with a +1.2 wind was declared official. Gout’s sizzling sprint in the heat was the quickest 200m time recorded this year across all ages, eclipsing Zimbabwe’s Makanakaishe Charamba who clocked 20.13s at an event in Texas.
“I had an unsteady start, and to be honest, after that I didn’t really feel like running,” Gout said.
“But it felt pretty good. I came off the bend and I just kept sending it. I felt the wind behind me, so I was like, let me just use it.
“And then I saw the clock, and when it got rounded down, I just couldn’t be happier.”
