South Sudanese Sprinter Gout Gout Runs Fastest 200 Meters Time in the World This Year
Even skeptics are beginning to compare the 17-year-old sensation, Gout Gout, to Usain Bolt.
Update: This page has been updated to reflect the most recent information as of 4 p.m. EST.
Since breaking a 56-year record and becoming Australia’s fastest man over 200 meters last December, 17-year-old sprinting prodigy Gout Gout (correctly spelled Guot Guot and pronounced Gwot Gwot) has been on track to become the fastest man in the world.
At the Queensland State Championships on Sunday, he once again stunned fans and skeptics by running 20.05 seconds in the 200-meter race, before topping this achievement by becoming the first-ever Australian to break the 20-second barrier with his victory in 19.98 seconds.
The 20-second barrier in the 200-meter race is one of the defining marks of world-class sprinting. For Gout, it marks a new record, just 0.01 seconds outside his Australian record. It is also the fastest 200-meter time in the world this year. While his number won’t stand due to illegal wind conditions, he is only the seventh under-20 athlete to accomplish this feat.
Born and raised in Queensland to a South Sudanese family, Gout has taken athletics by storm. Since he broke onto the scene in 2022, when he ran the 100-meter race in 10.57 seconds as a 14-year-old, he has won medals at home andabroad.
At the Australian All Schools Athletics Championship in December, he ran 100 meters in 10.04 seconds, recording the fourth-fastest under-18 100 meters time in history and the fifth-fastest time by an Australian in any condition. While the result also didn’t count due to an illegal tailwind of 3.4 meters/second, race commentatorMitch Dyer called his performance “history.”
GOUT THE GREAT 🤯
— Australian Athletics (@AustralianAths) December 6, 2024
16-year-old Gout Gout backs up an incredible 10.04 (+3.4) in the heats with a national record in the U18 Men’s 100m Final, blitzing to 10.17 (+0.9). He surpasses the previous mark of 10.27 set by Sebastian Sultana in 2022.
📸 Casey Sims#NextIsNow… pic.twitter.com/SJKAcmn3Rk
Gout then ran 20.04 seconds in the 200-meter race, breaking Usain Bolt’s age-grade world record of 20.13 seconds and the Australian record of 20.06 seconds set by Peter Norman at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
Apart from his speed, commentators have been stunned by Gout’srapid improvement over a short period. From running 20.60 seconds in a 200-meter race in August, he has lowered his time so significantly that he has since passed the 20.16 seconds qualifying mark for the 2025 World Athletic Championships in Tokyo twice.
“These are adult times, and me, just a kid — I’m running them,” Gout said. “It’s going to be a great future for sure... I have been chasing that record but didn’t think it would come this year. I thought maybe next year or the year after that.”
Gout’s effortless running style has led to frequent comparisons with eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt, who agrees that Gout looks like a younger version of himself. “It’s pretty cool because Usain Bolt is arguably the greatest athlete of all time, and being compared to him is a great feeling,”Gout said. “Obviously, I’m Gout Gout, so I’m trying to make a name for myself. If I can get to the level he was, that would be a great achievement.”
Gout has made a name for himself as the running sensation to watch. With aspirations for the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 andpredictions of peaking at the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, he will run in an increasing spotlight in the coming years.
In January 2025, Gout spent a week training with Olympic 100-meter champion Noah Lyles and coach Lance Brauman, who invited him to Florida through their mutual sponsor, Adidas. Afterward, Gout boldly expressed his plans to take Lyles’ place. “I am trying to show you what’s up, I am trying to come out there with a bang,” he told the three-time Olympic and seven-time World Championship medallist on his podcast. “Obviously, it’s a learning experience but deep down I’m trying to get a medal for sure or even make that final and be running up Noah or trying to chase Noah down for sure.”
“We know the job is not done yet — we haven’t even reached base camp of Everest,” Sheppard toldThe Guardian.