Gout Gout missed out on a place in the 200m final at the World Championship despite a storming finish to his semi-final before Noah Lyles matched a Usain Bolt milestone
Sprint sensation Gout Gout showed his class despite missing out on a place in the 200m final at the World Athletics Championship. The prodigious 17-year-old Australian, who has drawn comparisons with Olympic legend Usain Bolt, qualified for the semi-finals in Tokyo after posting a time of 20.23 in his heat.
However, Gout fell agonisingly short of a place in the final. Needing to finish in the top two, he made a sluggish start and was eighth rounding the bend.
He recovered places on the straight, storming through to take fourth in 20.36, but it wasn’t enough to reach the final. He finished behind Jamaican Bryan Levell (19.78), Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (19.95) and American Courtney Lindsey (20.30).
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To sum up the level of competition Gout was up against, every athlete who reached the final ran under 20 seconds in their semi. It was still a performance he could be proud of, and he earned more acclaim for his classy and humble reaction after the race.
The youngster was spotted by commentators going up to every competitor and shaking their hands. He then told Channel 9: “It’s been a great experience. Just to come out here at the young age of 17 is an experience not many people can experience. So I’m happy to be here.
“Tokyo is one of the things I’ve wanted to visit for a long time, and to visit it and get that World Championship is to my dreams come true. So definitely happy to be here. Being able to come out here in the semi-final and do my thing, it’s pretty, pretty incredible.”
In the final, Noah Lyles became the second athlete in history to win four straight men’s 200m titles at the World Championship. Lyles stormed to gold in 19.52 to join Bolt as the only two to accomplish the feat (2009 to 2015).
Lyles had to hold off Kenneth Bednarek (19.58) in a US one-two. Jamaica’s Bryan Levell filled out the podium in a personal best of 19.64. Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was fifth with a season-best time of 19.78.
Meanwhile, Amy Hunt burst into tears immediately after blazing to a brilliant silver medal in the women’s 200m final. It was Great Britain’s second podium of the championships, achieved in 22.14 seconds behind the United States’ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, already the 100m champion in Japan, who crossed the line in 21.68s.
Shericka Jackson collected bronze for Jamaica in 22.18s, while Dina Asher-Smith finished fifth. The race required a restart after the Bahamas’ Anthonique Strachan was disqualified for a false start.
Hunt told the BBC: “I have not stopped smiling or crying! As soon as I saw my mum, I burst into tears. I knew I could do it, as long as I put in a good turn and was with them off the bend. I am so proud of myself. I just beat some amazing girls and I can’t believe it.”
