Gout Gout turns 18 as whirlwind year ends amid high hopes for even faster 2026 | Jack Snape
Sprint phenomenon Gout Gout turned 18 on Monday, marking the formal end to the childhood of Australia’s fastest man,It’s a sentence as ridiculous as the Queenslander’s times, which have propelled him towards a medal assault at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and World Junior Championships,The past 12 months delivered Gout a first national title and a first senior world championships semi-final appearance,He was clocked under 10s in the 100m and under 20s in the 200m, even if the times were scrubbed from records due to excessive tailwinds,Yet he believes his achievements off the track – in a year during which he completed year 12 at school – are just as significant, including the purchase of a newly built home for him and his family.
“It’s definitely a privilege being able to provide back to my family what they’ve given to me,” he said, speaking to Nova Brisbane’s David Lutteral before Christmas, revealing he had settled on a property not far from the existing family home in western Brisbane.“As you get older, one of your dreams is buying your parents a house or buying your parents a car or things of that nature, and I’ve done one of those things,” Gout said.“[I’m] definitely proud of myself for sure, and sometimes it’s a pinch yourself moment for sure, knowing that I’m literally just 17, turning 18, and I’ve already done these great things.”Gout has plans to go to university, but will take a gap year in 2026 to focus on his training.Coach Di Sheppard and manager James Templeton remain his key advisers as he embarks on the next phase of his development.
“I’ve built a very stable circle and, especially as an athlete, you’ve got to have that circle around you to get to the next level,” the sprinter said,Heading into a new year without school, Gout’s open diary means he can put in time at the track or gym and recover as required throughout the day, rather than schedule sessions around his classes,“I can train a lot more efficiently and recover better and have more energy to focus on the actual training as well, aside from school and school work,” he said,“It won’t change too much, but it’ll definitely help me,”It has now been more than a year since Gout broke Peter Norman’s longstanding national 200m record as a 16-year-old.
He bettered that mark in 2025 multiple times, although due to windy conditions two sub-20s runs aren’t recognised.His current personal best of 20.02s was set in June, at his first senior overseas meet in Ostrava.It is the fifth fastest 200m for a 17-year-old in athletics history.Only Usain Bolt and American Erriyon Knighton – who is now serving a suspension after failing a drug test – ran quicker in legal wind conditions before their 18th birthdays.
But Gout’s 19.84s at the national championships in Perth in April was perhaps more impressive, even if the 2.2m/s tailwind was fractionally above the 2m/s legal limit.No one has run a faster 200m as a 17-year-old, although Knighton also has a 19.84s in calm conditions.
The Australian is adamant he can go faster.“My start, that’s obviously a part where I can drop times majorly,” he said.“Just staying really relaxed, and just staying really in position and head screwed on properly, because the more relaxed you are, the faster you run.”His focus for the upcoming year is the World Junior Championships in Eugene in August, but he has also expressed a desire to race at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow immediately prior to that event.Before that busy northern hemisphere summer, he is set to run at the Queensland titles and the Maurie Plant meet in March, and the nationals in Sydney in April.
He is likely to race overseas in the lead-up to Glasgow and Eugene, although his team is still finalising his schedule in a year he intends to incorporate more 100m races alongside his preferred 200m.Gout understands he faces a year in an ever-brightening spotlight, but he said his breakout 2025 has prepared him well for what is to come.“It’s definitely been different to experience for sure, especially being a 16, 17-year-old kid, you get pushed into this world and you don’t really know what to do or what to expect,” he said.“The more interviews I do, the more comfortable I’m becoming.”“Brand Gout”, for now, can wait.
In coming days he will celebrate becoming an adult with a family gathering, before marking the occasion with his athletics associates,He is also considering a trip to the go-kart track with his friends,“They treat me like ‘regular Gout’,” he said,“You know, I’m not no superstar, I’m not no ‘fastest man in the world’, I’m just ‘regular Gout’, and I definitely think that helps me a lot,”
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The two most recent winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup were among the 11 runners for the Grade One Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday but neither could match the strength and resilience of a resurgent Affordale Fury, as Noel Meade’s seven-year-old made his breakthrough at the highest level after an injury-plagued career to date.Affordale Fury was the 150-1 runner-up in the three-mile Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham in March 2023, but his career since has included breaks of 438 and 241 days and Sunday’s race was just his fifth chase start outside novice company.It was also his fourth outing since October, though, offering hope that his former fragility may now be behind him, and he set a decent gallop from the off despite persistently jumping to his right.He appeared to be running out of steam as Galopin Des Champs, the Gold Cup winner in 2023 and 2024 and a five-time Grade One winner at Leopardstown over the Savills Chase’s three-mile trip, took it up at the second-last.Galopin Des Champs’s familiar finishing kick did not materialise, however, and after another sharp jump to his right at the last, Affordale Fury stayed on again to beat I Am Maximus, the 2024 Grand National winner, by two-and-a-half lengths with Galopin Des Champs next across the line
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Gout Gout turns 18 as whirlwind year ends amid high hopes for even faster 2026 | Jack Snape
Sprint phenomenon Gout Gout turned 18 on Monday, marking the formal end to the childhood of Australia’s fastest man. It’s a sentence as ridiculous as the Queenslander’s times, which have propelled him towards a medal assault at the 2026 Commonwealth Games and World Junior Championships.The past 12 months delivered Gout a first national title and a first senior world championships semi-final appearance. He was clocked under 10s in the 100m and under 20s in the 200m, even if the times were scrubbed from records due to excessive tailwinds.Yet he believes his achievements off the track – in a year during which he completed year 12 at school – are just as significant, including the purchase of a newly built home for him and his family
Root backs McCullum after MCG win but Stokes needs support from system | Ali Martin
In fairness to Australian cricket, it rarely sticks its head in the sand. On Sunday in Melbourne, when 90,000 fans should have been enjoying day three of the fourth Test, they put Matt Page, chief curator at the MCG, in front of the media to face a grilling over that casino of a two-day pitch.Page was contrite, admitted his mistakes, and vowed to never repeat the 10mm of grass that, while designed to guard against hotter weather later in the match, delivered a second hammer blow to Cricket Australia’s finances this series. For all the public anger Stuart Fox, the ground’s chief executive, did not sound as if he was about to issue Page with his marching orders.Aberrations happen, people are only human and everyone deserves a second chance
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