Former Australian sprinting cult hero John Steffensen erred away from predicting whether or not Gout Gout would be capable to conquer the Stawell Present from scratch — a feat that is solely been achieved within the marquee males’s race twice in 142 years.
However the Commonwealth Video games gold medallist hailed the Stawell Present’s luring of a teen sensation who had “transcended the game” of athletics and stated he was set to make for “bloody good viewing” on Easter Monday.
It was revealed on Wednesday that Gout, the 17-year-old sprinting sensation from Queensland, had agreed to run the enduring 120-metre race within the Victorian city of Stawell.
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And within the seemingly occasion of Gout being dealt probably the most tough handicap doable — a handicap of 10 metres — the most well liked property in Australian athletics might be making an attempt to change into the primary man since 2005 to win from scratch, 20 years on from Olympian Josh Ross’ heroic second on the grass of Central Park.
The winners of the lads’s and ladies’s 120m races will each pocket $40,000 at an occasion that is billed as “Australia’s richest footrace”.
Steffensen contested the well-known occasion in 2011, 2012 and 2014. His London Olympic Video games marketing campaign was derailed by a hamstring tear suffered within the closing of the 2012 Stawell Present.
Australian sprinting prodigy Gout Gout. Getty
“He is undoubtedly transcended the game so far as athletics, so to have any individual who’s on the tip of individuals’s tongues on the subject of sport … I believe it is nice for the VAL [Victorian Athletic League] and the organisers of the Stawell Present … He’s the recent title in athletics in the meanwhile,” Steffensen informed Large World of Sports activities.
“I really like the Stawell Present. I believe it is one of many premium athletics meets in the entire world. Its historical past and what it stands for is frickin’ wonderful, the way it’s run on grass, the custom, a dwell occasion for spectators … It is a part of Australian historical past, and to have Gout part of that I believe is incredible for everyone concerned.”
4 years earlier than Cathy Freeman’s golden second in Sydney she produced a panoramic win within the 400m in Stawell.
Kim Collins, the 2003 world 100m champion, and former 100m world document holder Asafa Powell are among the many different greats to have run on the Stawell Present.
John Steffensen (1) racing the 550m on the 2014 Stawell Present. Getty
“It is onerous to say how folks’s star energy compares and what they’ll generate so far as curiosity,” Steffensen stated.
“However is it an excellent factor Gout is coming? Hell yeah, it is an important factor he is coming … He is the in-form athlete and the speak of the city on the subject of sprinting in the meanwhile in Australia, and even worldwide. Everybody’s speaking about this younger child operating quick … Each time he runs he will generate consideration, and if that spotlight goes to be centered on the Stawell Present, how nice is that for the Stawell Present?”
Requested if Gout may win from scratch, Steffensen stated he’d should know who’s operating and off which marks earlier than making a name, however the considered Gout making an attempt to run excessive of the sector had him raving.
Gout Gout. Getty
“As a result of it is Gout and the best way he runs — he is obtained such an excessive operating gait, he runs so massive and tall — and his finest distance is the 200m, which fits him for the 120m, it is constructed for him late,” Steffensen stated.
“The final 20 [metres] is the place the race is sorted out, when all of the handicaps come into play, and to see a scratch marker mowing all of them down is bloody good viewing.”
Gout will subsequent race on the Queensland championships, to be held in Brisbane from March 13-16, the place he’ll contest the 100m and 200m.
The Adidas-sponsored prodigy will then compete within the 200m at Melbourne’s Maurie Plant Meet on March 29.
On the Australian championships in Perth in April, every week earlier than the Stawell Present, Gout will compete within the open division within the 200m and the under-20 area within the 100m.
Within the Ipswich product’s most up-to-date viral run, he broke the Australian 200m document set by the enduring Peter Norman on the Mexico Metropolis 1968 Olympics.
Gout, 16 on the time, clocked 20.04 seconds in Brisbane in December to raised the quickest time recorded by Usain Bolt on the similar age. Bolt’s private finest at 16 was 20.13.
In January, Gout spent two weeks in Clermont, Florida on a coaching camp with the squad of American megastar Noah Lyles, the reigning 100m Olympic champion.
