The brightest new star of Australian athletics, dash sensation Gout Gout, is ready to contest the nation’s oldest footrace, the storied Stawell Reward.
Gout’s supervisor James Templeton confirmed on Wednesday the 17-year-old had agreed to run within the 143rd version of the 120m handicap occasion in April, though the contract had but to be finalised.
Barcelona 100m Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie, former world document holder Asafa Powell and 2003 world champ Kim Collins are among the many celebrated names to have contested the function race on the well-known grass observe at Central Park down by means of the years.
None of them had been in a position to win.
However such is the hype round Gout — who broke Peter Norman’s 56-year-old Australian 200m document and clocked a wind-assisted 10.04 seconds for the 100m on the Australian All-Faculties Championships in Brisbane in December — that his look at Stawell might be much more of a headline act.
Gout additionally completed second within the 200m ultimately 12 months’s world junior championships in Peru.
Given his latest flying occasions, Gout could be handed a tricky mark by the reward handicappers.
The final man — and solely the second ever — to win the reward off scratch was Australian sprinting nice Josh Ross in 2005.
Gout has just lately returned from a two-week coaching camp in america with Paris Olympics 100m gold medallist Noah Lyles.
He’s balancing 12 months 12 research this 12 months along with his burgeoning observe profession.
The 2025 Stawell Reward can be run on April 21 — Easter Monday — per week after the conclusion of the Australian observe and area championships in Perth.
The latter occasion doubles because the trials for the world championships in Tokyo in September.
Solely final week, Gout informed Lyles he was coming for his gold medals.
“That is what I like to listen to,” responded American Lyles on his Past The Information podcast.
AAP
