World Championships: Noah Lyles backs Aussie teen Gout Gout after impressive Tokyo semi exit
The best is definitely yet to come for Australia’s teen sprint sensation Gout Gout – and American champion Noah Lyles knows it.
Noah Lyles had just run one of the fastest times of his career, left the 50,000 fans in Tokyo’s National Stadium stunned yet when the world press circled him, the topic which seemed to excite him the most was Gout Gout.
“More talented than I was (at that age),” the defending 200m world champion said about the 17-year-old Australian.
“Nothing but great talent coming up. He’s an amazing kid, he’s got a great head on him, a great team around him.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how he develops. The thing I always look for when I’m looking at younger talent is one, ‘Are you just going to be able to train into shape?’ because when you’re in high school you’re able to get races all the time whenever you want.
“But as a pro, you’ve got to come prepared already.
“And then two, just seeing how they put some weight room on him, as time develops, naturally. He’s got a great coach, she’s constantly looking to be a better coach and she’s constantly looking to be the best for him.
“We’ll see. I’ll say the future looks bright for him.”
Balancing expectations was always going to be the biggest battle for Gout at his first world championships.
There was the hype which had built up thanks to his extraordinary record-breaking feats, brilliant smile and chilled personality which had endeared him to the Australian public.
Then there was the reality that he was still in Year 12 and this was the first time he was racing a major event against fully-grown men.
In the lead-up the great Usain Bolt, who Gout has been compared to because of their similar running style, warned the youngster about how hard the leap from junior to senior level was.
The gap was there for all to see in Gout’s two races in Tokyo. In his heat Jamaican Bryan Levell sped away from him to clock 19.84sec with Gout finishing third in 20.23 to qualify automatically for the semi-finals.
Then in Thursday night’s semi-final it was rinse and repeat for Levell but not Gout. The winner got faster, scorching home in 19.78sec while Gout ground home, rather than pinged, for fourth in 20.36sec.
Five minutes later Lyles then produced his magical moment, a world leading 19.51sec and the fastest time ever run in a semi-final at a world championship.
Eight men went under 20 seconds in the semi-finals, Gout is yet to do that. In the end he was ranked No.18 in the world.
Right now they’re just bigger, stronger and better. Those are the facts and Gout acknowledged as much after his semi-final exit.
“I can definitely compete with the skinny frame, but getting bigger is definitely a thing that’s got to help me, especially in my block start, and knowing that I can get that strength . . . I can execute my race plan even better and get faster,” he said.
“I think, obviously, I’m a skinny build, but you know, getting stronger is the main focus for sure. And I know when I get stronger, I can go faster.”.
The niggle which will annoy Gout and his team is that he wasn’t able to produce a personal best time. The aim was to break the 20-second barrier and take a fair chunk out of his Australian record.
But what he learnt about how to handle pressure, the processes involved on race day at a major championships and just how good the rest of the world are will be invaluable.
Don’t forget Bolt didn’t make it out of the heat at his first major championships. Gout did.
He has time on his side which was the narrative he was going with afterwards, saying he’ll be better and faster at 25 while most of the sprinters he was against in Tokyo would most likely not be around.
What is real now is Australia’s fascination with the teenager. On Wednesday night more than 3 million viewers tuned in to watch his heat and it was the same number for his semi-final on Thursday night across Channel 9 and SBS.
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More people watched him than the AFL and NRL finals last weekend.
Gout will have a short holiday before returning to Ipswich Grammar School to take his Year 12 exams next month. His next competition will be at the Queensland GPS (Great Public Schools’ Association) carnival on October 24.
You have to feel for those kids but right there is the perfect reminder for everyone about Gout. He’s still a kid and Tokyo will be looked back on in years down the track as a crucial stepping stone to greatness.
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