‘I hope it doesn’t get him down’: Usain Bolt tells Gout Gout to get ready to lose
Like running fast, growing pains are something sprint lord Usain Bolt knows something about.So when he tells teenage phenomenon Gout Gout that his first steps into the world of senior athletics will not be easy, the Australian ought to take heed.“I know it’s going to be an eye-opener,” Bolt told CNN of Gout’s first year as an adult, and an impending succession of showdowns against the world’s best sprinters.“And I hope it doesn’t get him down, but motivate him to work even harder.”Bolt showed huge promise as a teenager, winning the world juniors as a 15-year-old, but it was not until he overcame injury struggles and off-track distractions that he was able to become a world beater, when he won gold in Beijing as a 21-year-old.
Gout, 18, has already run 200m faster than Bolt did as a teenager,Having had a taste for senior international competition last year at the World Championships in Tokyo, the Australian has lined up an array of races in 2026 against the likes of Americans Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek, and Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo,It will be a year of massive change for Gout, who turned 18 and finished high school in December,Bolt predicts the transition will not all be smooth,“I think in the first year you will learn a lot and understand what you need to do to be better,” he said.
Gout has raced mainly in junior competitions so far, with the exception of a handful of adult 200m outings.He got a taste for the Diamond League in Monaco last year, but only in an under-23 race.In 2026, his focus is on gold at the world juniors in August, but before then he plans to take on the best adults over 200m in prestigious meets in Oslo and Prefontaine, as well as a 150m against Noah Lyles in Ostrava.“For me, [moving to seniors was] so big, it’s totally different,” Bolt said.“I remember coming out of high school, going on the circuit, I felt like I was on top of the world because I also was winning and running good, and when I got on the circuit, I didn’t win one race.
”Handling defeat, according to Bolt, will be just as important for Gout as improving his start or building muscle in the gym,“The pressure that comes with it, is not going to be easy because every time you step on that track, everybody’s going to be always looking for a fast time, always looking for you to do great,“So hopefully he has the right people to help him to understand that not every day is going to be a great day,Not every time you run, you’re going to win,It’s all about just learning right now at a young age, learning and figuring out how can I get better, how can I move forward.
”Gout has retained his core team of advisers, which includes long-time coach Di Sheppard and manager James Templeton.Bolt, now 39, said the influence of those around him during this period should not be underestimated.“He’s a young talent, he’s a massive young talent, I’ve always said.I just hope he finds the right people,” Bolt said.“I think it’s so big a transition [to move from juniors] and to have the right people to help to watch you because when you, at that young age – because I was there – you start getting pulled left and right and then you forget track and field.
“So, hopefully, he has the right set of people who actually help to guide him and to keep him focused on track and field because the rest of the stuff will always be there.But if you mess up at track and field, then it all goes away.”
Starmer says it ‘beggars belief’ he wasn’t told about Mandelson vetting failure as he faces down the Commons – UK politics as it happened
It wasn’t much of a win, but as Keir Starmer heads back to Downing Street he will probably count that as a sort of success. Labour MPs did not turn on him; there was no one on his side calling for his resignation, and those who did speak out were mostly from the Corbynite left (whose views are discounted by No 10 anyway), and who were more keen to aim their fire at Morgan McSweeney and Peter Mandelson.If Kemi Badenoch thought there was more mileage in this, she could have tabled a no confidence motion on this which would have to be debated tomorrow, but she didn’t. She can be brutal in the Commons, but her speech today did not cause the PM any difficulties.Last week she was saying he was clearly lying
What Starmer said, and didn’t say, in the Commons about the Mandelson saga
Keir Starmer has laid out a detailed timeline of events leading up to Peter Mandelson being refused security vetting and how the message was not passed to No 10. Here’s what his statement did tell us – and what it was more vague on.double quotation markI will now set out a full timeline of the events in the Peter Mandelson process.”In a statement that leaned heavily on Starmer’s time as a lawyer, and was framed almost as a prosecution opening case against the Foreign Office and its now-ousted head civil servant, Olly Robbins, the PM set out events from 18 December 2024, when the decision to appoint Mandelson was confirmed, to last Tuesday, when he finally learned that security vetting had been initially refused.This included moments when, Starmer argued, he or others should have been told about Mandelson initially being refused security vetting: the initial refusal; when the foreign affairs select committee was assured that normal procedures were followed; and when Starmer began a wider review into vetting this year
Starmer the Incurious asks no questions and sees no Mandy-shaped red flags
Things could be worse. The prime minister can still catch a break. Some had called Monday’s Commons statement Keir Starmer’s judgment day. But that was a category error. Many Labour MPs had long since made up their minds
Is Richard Tice’s picture AI-manipulated? Here are five giveaways
After Richard Tice posted a picture of an apparent Reform campaign event on Sunday, experts and social media detectives took a closer look and concluded from a variety of telltale signs that the image had either been edited or generated by artificial intelligence. Here are some of the elements that critics called into question.One woman has six fingers on one hand and extra long ones on the other. The man in the beige jacket has three extremely long fingers which look like sausages. AI often gets fingers wrong
Mandelson vetting saga reveals flaws in Starmer’s judgment, not process | Letters
The emerging account of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador raises a question not of process, but of judgment (Revealed: Mandelson failed vetting but Foreign Office overruled decision, 16 April). The prime minister was warned repeatedly. Briefings in November and December 2024 flagged reputational risks, including well-documented associations and potential exposure if the appointment went wrong. Keir Starmer’s national security adviser raised concerns directly. Yet the appointment proceeded at pace
Starmer orders inquiry into any security concerns over Mandelson’s tenure in US
Keir Starmer has ordered an investigation into any security concerns relating to Peter Mandelson’s tenure as UK ambassador to the US, as he set out a series of practical measures in the wake of the controversy over Mandelson’s vetting.Setting out to the Commons what he called the “frankly staggering” way that Mandelson was appointed to the job despite initially being turned down for security vetting, Starmer said he had ordered a full review into the vetting system.He went on: “Separately, I have asked the government security group in the Cabinet Office to look at any security concerns raised during Peter Mandelson’s tenure.”The prime minister also set out how rules had been changed to make sure that, as happened with Mandelson, someone could not be publicly named as an ambassadorial appointee before they were vetted, even for a political choice like Mandelson.“I want to make clear to the house that for a direct ministerial appointment it was usual for security vetting to happen after the appointment, but before starting in post
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