By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Teen sprinter Gout Gout will make a much-anticipated world championships debut in Tokyo this month as he marks an early milestone in a career Australia hopes will peak with Olympic gold at Brisbane 2032.
Still only 17, Gout is already one of the most exciting prospects in global athletics, earning comparisons with Jamaican great Usain Bolt and training with Adidas stable-mate Noah Lyles in Florida.
All this while juggling homework and exams in his final year of high
school in Ipswich, Queensland.
Gout is skipping school for a few days to run in the 200 metres at Tokyo, only his second senior race abroad.
His first, in June, saw him win the 200m at the Ostrava Golden Spike event in the Czech Republic in 20.02 seconds, improving on his Australia record.
While impressive for his age that time only puts him equal-20th in the season rankings, meaning he may need to raise the bar considerably to earn a spot in the world final.
Just doing that much would send Australia into another frenzy of excitement.
Unheard of outside athletics circles a year ago, the son of Sudanese immigrants has become the pin-up boy of Australian track and field, boosting ticket sales at domestic events and bringing in a new, youthful audience.
Fans flocked to a Victorian gold rush town on the Easter weekend to see Gout race in the Stawell Gift, a local handicap footrace on a grass track.
Gout failed to make the final of the 120m sprint but the crowd of 6,000 was double the usual attendance and organisers were thrilled.
Gout's 200m run at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne in the previous month drew 10,000 to Lakeside Stadium, the nation's first sell-out crowd for a one-day athletics event in over 20 years.
Athletes and officials have warned Australia not to expect too much too soon in case the pressure becomes overwhelming for the teenager.
The warnings have largely flown out the window.
"What is also now a matter not open for debate is that Gout is the real thing," said a typical testimonial in a Melbourne newspaper after national athletics championships.
"We are witnesses to greatness emerging in front of us by the race."
Gout can no longer go out in public without being swamped by well-wishers despite being largely sheltered from the media by his handlers.
Although signed to Adidas in a long-term deal worth a reported A$6 million ($3.90 million), Gout lives as normal a childhood as he can on the outskirts of Brisbane.
One of seven siblings, he shares a room with his brother in the family home in Spring Hill.
His coach, Di Sheppard, is no former champion athlete but a silver-haired 60-year-old who once worked in the uniform shop at Gout's school. A renowned disciplinarian who scatters expletives throughout her interviews, she is convinced Gout will dominate the world in time.
"I'm not suggesting it. He's going to go to that level," she told Australian TV earlier this year.
"Olympic gold. It might not be '28 (Los Angeles), but definitely going to happen in 2032."
For the moment, Gout is still a work in progress, relatively sluggish out of the blocks but impressive in the back half of races.
It will take around 20 seconds in Tokyo to get a read on his place among the big dogs of track and field but possibly years of development before he can hope to leave them in his wake.
($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
