Australian sprinter Gout Gout shatters Usain Bolt’s teenage 200m record
Australian 18-year-old Gout Gout has set a new world under-20 record by running the 200m in 19.67 seconds at the national championships in Sydney on Sunday, eclipsing Usain Bolt’s fastest teenage time.
The Queensland-born athlete claimed the national title while officially bettering the 19.93-second mark established by Jamaican legend Bolt as a 17-year-old in 2004.
Bolt never ran faster as a teenager before eventually setting the senior world record of 19.19 seconds in Berlin five years later.
This latest blistering performance leaves the rising star less than half a second behind the greatest 200m time in history.
Record-breaking legal run
Although the lightning-fast youngster clocked a wind-assisted 19.84 seconds last season, Sunday’s stunning race marks his first legally recognised sub-20-second effort.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for. We have such incredible athletes in Australia and me being able to race these athletes, we push each other to the limits.”
“There’s a big weight off my shoulders knowing I ran it legally, and I have the speed and my body to run times like that,” he added.
Fellow compatriot Aidan Murphy also dipped under the 20-second barrier during the same blistering final, finishing in 19.88 seconds to secure a remarkable one-two finish.
Global targets on the horizon
The official world under-20 record previously stood at 19.69 seconds, set by American sprinter Erriyon Knighton.
While Knighton did clock a faster 19.49 in 2022, that particular time was never officially ratified by the sport’s global governing body.
Looking ahead, the teenager of South Sudanese descent will now skip the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this July.
Instead, his primary focus shifts to August’s World Under-20 Championships in Oregon, where he aims to cement his status as athletics’ next global phenomenon.
