Australian Teen Gout Gout Advances to 200m Semifinals at World Athletics Championships
TOKYO – Australian sprinter Gout Gout continued his breakout season, qualifying for the 200m semifinals at the World Athletics Championships on Tuesday. The 17-year-old, consistently likened to athletics megastar Usain Bolt due to his similar upright sprinting action and powerful finishing ability, impressed during his heat in Tokyo.
Gout’s performance adds to an already remarkable year for the ipswich Grammar schoolboy. In March, he won the under-20 Australian 200m title in a wind-assisted 19.98s. A month later, he triumphed in the senior Australian 200m final in Perth, clocking a wind-assisted 19.84s.He then set a legal time of 20.02s, breaking his own national record by 0.02s – the second-fastest time ever posted by an under-18 athlete in the 200m.The Championships represent a important step up in competition for the rising star, offering a global stage to showcase his potential.
Gout will be joined in the 200m semifinals by fellow Australian Torrie Lewis, who achieved a lifetime best run of 22.56s to finish as the runner-up in her women’s heat.Lewis,who also contested the women’s 100m semifinals earlier in the program,finished second behind Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (22.40s).
For Lewis, this marks a second successive major championships semifinal appearance, having reached the same stage in the 200m at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris, where she finished seventh.
elsewhere on night five, American Katie Moon secured the women’s pole vault title, soaring to a season-best 5.01m to defeat compatriot Sandi Morris. Isaac Nader of Portugal won a thrilling men’s 1500m final, edging out 2022 champion Jake Wightman by just 0.02s.
