By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, April 17 (Reuters) - Teenage sprinter Gout Gout will look to make another statement run at the Australian junior championships in Brisbane over the weekend following his blistering 200 metres win last weekend.
The 18-year-old generated global headlines at the senior championships in Sydney last weekend by claiming the 200 title in 19.67 seconds, an under-20 world record.
Gout's immediate goal will be breaking the 10-second barrier on Saturday during the semi-finals and final at the Queensland
Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC) in Brisbane after running 10.19 in Friday's heats.
Only two Australians have managed it: national record holder Patrick Johnson (9.93) and Lachlan Kennedy, who ran a personal best (PB) 9.96 twice at the senior championships.
Gout set his PB of 10 seconds-flat in February on the same QSAC track and is confident of raising the bar.
"100%," he told reporters on Friday.
"Hopefully the wind stays pretty calm and anything is possible."
Johnson, who ran his 9.93 in Mito, Japan in 2003, has warned against putting too much pressure on Gout at his age but is ready for his national record to fall.
"Yes, I am the first (to break 10 seconds) but I never want to be the last," Johnson told local media this week.
"I have said to these guys my records are there to be broken, you create your own history and your own reality."
Gout will also have a chance to improve on his national 200 record when the preliminaries start on Sunday.
While every Gout improvement sparks a media frenzy in Australia and triggers comparisons with Usain Bolt's runs during his teenage years, some in the athletics world are yet to be convinced.
Former Olympic and world 100m champion Justin Gatlin said Gout was used to running in Australia and needed to prove himself overseas.
"You can run fast in comfort, everyone can run fast in comfort. But can you run fast in discomfort? That's where it's at," Gatlin said this week.
"That's going to be a challenge for him because he's so used to running in Australia."
Gout said there would always be "haters".
"If there's haters, it means you are doing something right," he said.
"It is what it is. I never take it (to heart) so I just keep running. It was pretty fast so that's probably why they were mad.
"It motivates me to do an even bigger race and run even faster."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
