Gout Gout, the 18-year-old South Sudanese-Australian sprinter, shattered the world junior record with a stunning 19.67 in the 200 m on 12 April 2026 at the 2026 Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney.
Held from 9 to 12 April at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, the championships serve as a premier selection event featuring elite track and field athletes.
Running with a legal tailwind of 1.7 metres per second, the time marked Gout’s first sub-20-second performance in legal conditions and currently tops the global rankings for 2026. It would have earned him a bronze medal in the 200 m at the Paris Olympics. He also became the first Australian to break the 20-second barrier in a wind-legal race.
His performance surpassed what Usain Bolt achieved at the same age. Widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time, Bolt first dipped under 20 seconds with a 19.99 in 2005. Gout’s run not only eclipsed Bolt’s teenage best but also ranks 16th on the all-time list and set a new championship record.
His time also places him joint-ninth on the all-time list of under-20 100 m runners, just 0.09 seconds behind Letsile Tebogo, the Paris 2024 200 m gold medallist.
Born on 29 December 2007 in Ipswich to South Sudanese parents who settled in Australia in 2006, Gout is the third of seven children. He began in competitive football before switching to athletics in his early teens, quickly making an impact. By 15, he had won both the 100 m and 200 m titles at the Australian junior championships. At 16, he recorded 20.04 seconds in the 200 m, then a world age-group best, and went on to win silver at the World U20 Championships in Lima.
Now standing at 1.83 m and coached by Di Sheppard with the Tigers Athletics Club, Gout has compiled an impressive run of performances over the past year, emerging as one of the most exciting young sprinters in the world.
This week, Gout turns his attention to the 100 m, where he is set to compete in the men’s under-20 category at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre on 17 and 18 April. He has already shown his potential in the event this season, clocking 10.00 seconds at the Dane Bird-Smith Shield Meet in February.
