Time comes for Gout Gout to prove himself against sprinting’s best emerging talent | Jack Snape
Australian teenager Gout Gout must first prove himself against sprinting’s emerging talent on Wednesday if he is to secure a match-up against the running royalty tipped to dominate the men’s 200m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.Gout’s 200m heat pits him against five semi-final contenders aged 23 or under, including three that have run quicker than him.In the traditional knockout format, only first, second and third are guaranteed a place in the next round, requiring Gout to be at or near his best to make sure his senior major debut lasts more than one race.The field is led by Bryan Levell, who last month recorded the third quickest 200m time in the rich history of Jamaican sprinting, behind only Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.His 19.
69sec into a slight headwind in Budapest elevated him into the medal conversation in Tokyo.But he has been consistent since winning Jamaica’s national title in June, including two sub 20.30sec runs in overseas meets before his breakout time in August.With his upright, robotic style, the 21-year-old Levell shot away early in that race in Hungary, and running inside Gout on Wednesday he is expected to heap pressure on the teenager from straight out of the blocks.Higher than Levell on the world rankings, the Zimbabwean Makanakaishe Charamba made the 200m final in Paris last year.
He may have finished last that day, but the 23-year-old has taken a step forward in 2025 and now has a personal best of 19.92sec which he has run twice this year.Israeli sprinter Blessing Afrifah is the only other one in the heat to have run sub-20sec and will be looking at Gout as a rival for a semi-final place.The 21-year-old has a PB of 19.96sec, which he ran to beat Paris Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo at the world juniors in Colombia three years ago.
Afrifah has struggled to go as quickly since, but his season best of 20.31sec suggests he will be in contention to make it through.Although Gout needs to finish in the top three to secure a direct place in the semi-finals, a quick fourth place is likely to get him through as one of the six next fastest qualifiers.A time of 20.44sec was enough to make the semis in Budapest.
The slowest Gout has run over 200m this year was a 20.30sec at the Maurie Plant meet in his first race against adults.On that chilly Melbourne night in March, Lachie Kennedy beat him to the line in front of a capacity crowd at Lakeside.Since then the teenager has run three races timed closer to 20sec, as well as one run of 19.84sec at the national titles in Perth scrubbed off due to a wind reading of 2.
2m/s.Gout’s formal personal best therefore is the 20.02sec he ran in Ostrava in June on his European debut.There he beat Czech Tomáš Němejc – who will race in lane two in Gout’s heat on Wednesday – by more than half a second.This year the Australian has also raced another one of the competitors from his heat, South African Naeem Jack.
In Monaco in July, Gout managed to run a 20,10sec despite a 1,9m/s headwind,Jack – aged just 18 and another one of the world’s emerging track stars – was no match for Gout that day, finishing third, three tenths behind the Australian,Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionThe South African lines up outside the Australian in the heat on Wednesday night and with a PB of 20.
13sec set earlier this year, will believe he has a legitimate chance at the semis,As will Ghana’s Ibrahim Fuseini, aged 22, who has already ran sub-10sec for the 100m,Australians Calab Law and Aidan Murphy will contest other heats, but none face off against any of the big three tipped for medals in the 200m: Tebogo, and Americans Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek,All three failed to live up to expectation in the 100m final on the weekend,Lyles claimed bronze, but Tebogo was disqualified for a false start, and Bednarek was slow out of the blocks and finished fourth.
Lyles, who has been a source of advice for Gout since the pair trained together in January, is chasing for his fourth successive world championship gold medal.
UK set on resolving standoff with big pharma, science minister says
The UK is determined to resolve its standoff with the pharmaceutical industry and reverse a 10-year decline in NHS spending on medicines, the science minister has told MPs after a string of drugmakers cancelled projects worth nearly £2bn.Patrick Vallance, a former executive at drugmaker GSK, said the country needed to increase spending on medicines and reverse a decade of declining investment.“We are determined to solve this,” Lord Vallance told the Commons science committee. “This is not something [where] we’re sitting saying let’s watch the decline of the industry. That’s what’s happened for the past 10 years
Jaguar Land Rover extends production shutdown after cyber-attack
Jaguar Land Rover has extended its shutdown on car production, as Britain’s biggest carmaker grapples with the aftermath of a cyber-attack.JLR said on Tuesday it would freeze production until at least next Wednesday, 24 September, as it continues its investigations into the hack, which first emerged earlier this month.The manufacturer said: “We have taken this decision as our forensic investigation of the cyber incident continues, and as we consider the different stages of the controlled restart of our global operations, which will take time.“We are very sorry for the continued disruption this incident is causing and we will continue to update as the investigation progresses.”JLR, which is owned by India’s Tata group, stopped production at its sites after discovering hackers had infiltrated its systems a few weeks ago
How memes, gaming and internet culture all relate to the Charlie Kirk shooting
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Dara Kerr here, filling in for Blake Montgomery, who promises he’ll come back from vacation. Meanwhile, I’m looking at the memes, gaming and internet culture behind the shooting of Charlie Kirk.The bullet that killed conservative activist was inscribed with a message: “Notices bulge OwO whats this?” The online world quickly recognized the reference. It’s a phrase used in internet culture to troll people in online role-play communities, specifically furries (a subculture that cosplays as anthropomorphic animal characters)
How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities | Letter
In discussing generative artificial intelligence (‘It’s going to be a life skill’: educators discuss the impact of AI on university education, 13 September) you appear to underestimate the challenges that large language model (LLM) tools such as ChatGPT present to higher education. The argument that mastering AI is a life skill that students need in preparation for the labour market is unconvincing. Our experience is that generative AI undermines teaching and learning, bypasses reflection and criticality, and deflects students from reading original material.Student misuse of generative AI is widespread. Claims that AI helps preparation or research is simply cover for students taking shortcuts that do not develop their learning skills
County Championship: Notts build lead despite Fisher’s 10-wicket heroics for Surrey – as it happened
Seventeen wickets fell on a feet-tappingly tense day at the Oval, the game swinging like an out-of-kilter pendulum as the bowlers hunted in packs, with assistance from a pitch with a twinkle in its eye. Nottinghamshire finished the day with a lead of 277 and two wickets left, to leave Surrey the biggest score of the match to chase – but on a pitch that usually irons out.After a calm first hour Surrey collapsed from 101 for one to 173 all out, only for Nottinghamshire’s batters to repeat the feat, quickly 89 for six against the excellent Matt Fisher, who has picked up 10 wickets in the match and may have bowled himself on to the Lions’ winter tour of Australia. Liam Patterson-White and Lyndon James then added crucial late afternoon runs.Surrey announced that 80,000 people had come through the gates at the Oval to watch Championship cricket this year – a record for the 21st century
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Axelle Berthoumieu’s ban for biting Ireland’s Aoife Wafer has been reduced to nine matches but Manaé Feleu’s citing was upheld by a disciplinary committee meaning both will miss the rest of the Rugby World Cup. France play England in the semi-finals on Saturday.The pair were cited on Sunday after their 18-13 quarter-final win against Ireland. Berthoumieu was cited for biting Wafer and, while the flanker accepted the foul play, she was appealing against the length of the initial 12-match ban a disciplinary committee proposed on Monday. That had already been reduced from the starting point of 18 matches but was taken down to nine because of her clean previous disciplinary record, remorse and public apology
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Time comes for Gout Gout to prove himself against sprinting’s best emerging talent | Jack Snape
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