"Who's that kid?"- Gout Gout's coach makes honest confession about being perplexed on spotting him for the first time 

Australian sprinter Gout Gout has become the talk of the town for his unconventional running. The 17-year-old sprinter was recently a part of the sports documentary 'Next Usain Bolt?', hosted by journalist Bruce McAvaney.

In the documentary, several personalities, from Australian legend Cathy Freeman to Gout's coach Di Sheppard, expressed their opinions about the emerging sprinter. Sheppard shared her thoughts about how she spotted Gout for the first time at Ipswich Grammar School in Southeast Queensland. In her conversation with McAvaney, Sheppard remarked [10:45 onwards]:

"I'd never seen him (before), and next minute I just saw him race against a particular boy, and I'm like, 'Who's that kid?', like, and they all just looked at me and I went, 'Forget that one, who's that?'"

Gout also talked about his bond with coach Sheppard. In his conversation with 7News, he mentioned:

"I was running in the interhouse and I was against the state champion for his age group. He was a year younger than me at the time. And I basically beat him and coach (Di Sheppard) came up to me and she was like, 'I believe you can be someone, you can be one of the fastest in Australia, fastest in the world.' And that really touched me. From then I’ve been training with coach, and we’ve just been building on for that.”

Gout Gout is the under-18 national record holder for both the 100m and the 200m event. The Australian sprinter is also the Oceanian record holder for the men's 200m event, with a best timing of 20.04 seconds.

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Gout Gout reveals his thoughts on being compared with Usain Bolt

Gout Gout opens up about the comparisons with Usain Bolt [Image Source: Getty]

Gout Gout has been often compared by several analysts with Usain Bolt, one of the greatest track and field stars of all time. The 17-year-old athlete knows this as well, and recently shared his thoughts about the same.

In an episode of 'Beyond the Records' podcast, Gout mentioned [2:10 onwards]:

"I'm trying to be the next Gout Gout and obviously being compared to Usain Bolt, everyone wants to be the next star basically and Usain Bolt is the best we've known, the best athlete. So being compared to him is obviously great but then I'm Gout Gout, so I want to be able to make my name as big as his name and obviously everyone, people younger would be like, ‘You're going to be the next Gout Gout’. So, yeah I want to be like that."

In December 2024, Gout broke the 56-year record of Australian sprinter Peter Norman to create a new continental record of 20.04 seconds at the Australian All Schools Championships. Gout also won a silver medal at the World U20 Athletics Championships held at Lima in Peru a few months before.