USAIN BOLT watched sprint sensation Gout Gout outperform him on his elite debut.
The Australian wonderkid, 17, has already drawn comparisons with the fastest man of all time in the junior ranks.
Gout Gout qualified for the 200m semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships[/caption]
Sprint king Usain Bolt watched the teenager in action[/caption]
But now the schoolboy is stepping up to senior sprinting.
Gout became the youngest man to be selected for an Australian World Athletics Championships team for the event in Tokyo after setting the national 200m record of 20.02 seconds earlier in the year.
And he is also the youngest man in the 200m field.
But despite a sluggish start, he defied his tender years by crossing the line in 20.23 seconds in Wednesday’s heat.
That was enough to finish third and book his place in the semi-finals.
However, he will likely need to break the 20-second barrier for the first time in his fledgling career to reach Friday’s final.
Jamaican Bryan Levell won Gout’s heat and was the fastest qualifier in 19.84 seconds while Noah Lyles and reigning Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo progressed to the semis.
Gout, though, was upbeat about his debut performance at the top table.
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He said: “I just felt that in my heat everyone wasn’t up against me, apart from the top two.
“So I just hit cruise control, in the last 50, last 30. That’s what I needed.
“Obviously there’s going to be expectation wherever I go.
“So it is what it is and I just go out there and do my thing.
“The starts obviously are not my strong suit, but as soon as I get into running, I’m chilling.
“It’s great to be out here competing on the world stage.
“I’m just happy, happy to be here, and can’t wait for the semi.
“It’s a great experience, running against the big dogs and I’m just excited for more.”
Bolt, 39, was sat in the stands to watch Gout line up against his new rivals.
But Gout did not suffer the same fate as the Jamaican icon on his debut on the big stage.
Bolt – who won eight Olympic and 11 World Championships gold medals and still holds both the 100m and 200m world records – only managed a 21.05 200m in the first round at the 2004 Olympics.
He was, though, carrying a leg injury at the time.
But Gout will etch his name into the athletics history books if he can emulate even a fraction of Bolt’s success on the track at Olympics and Worlds level.
Gout crossed the line in third as Jamaica’s Bryan Levell won the heat[/caption]
The teenager knows he needs to work on his start[/caption]
