Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout, widely heralded as the heir to Usain Bolt’s throne, was beaten into second place over 200m over a sell out crowd at the Maurie Plant Meet
Sprint sensation Gout Gout was upstaged by compatriot Lachlan Kennedy in front of a sell-out crowd in Melbourne but admitted a rare taste of defeat over 200m will leave him more motivated than ever.
Gout, 17, brought more than 10,000 fans out at the Maurie Plant meet with his World Tour debut prompting competition organisers to reorganise the schedule to ensure his event would be the final on the programme.
He was also introduced last to ramp up excitement only for a slow start to leave him trailing Kennedy. Gout did make up plenty of ground but was unable to overtake Kennedy, clocking 20.30secs behind his rival’s 20.26secs.
“It definitely puts fuel to my fire, and it lights that burn, so when I get to training, [I need to] work even harder and help better myself for nationals,” Gout said, having spent the winter training with Noah Lyles’ training group in the United States.
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Kennedy, who finished second to Britain’s Jeremiah Azu over 60m at last weekend’s World Indoor Championships in China, said he “got lucky” in beating Gout, adding: “My goal was just to go out hard and try my best to hold him off.” Kennedy had already won the 100m earlier in the evening.
Gout added: “It’s not a new rivalry, but it’s a rivalry I appreciate and I love Lachie, he’s also a Queenslander.” He has already secured his spot at September’s World Championships in Tokyo over 200m but is unlikely to target the 100m.
Elsewhere at the meet, the Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo finished second in the 400m having chosen to run the longer distance. “Now, we are done, we are focused on the 200 metres, now we did what we wanted to do,” he said, having been edged by fellow Botswanan Bayapo Ndori.
Up and coming middle distance star Cameron Myers, who has already eclipsed a number of Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s underage world records, won the men’s 1500m in 3:34.98. “It was tough conditions, but I was able to muscle it out as best I could,” Myers said.
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