By Nick Mulvenney
TOKYO (Reuters) -Australian teenager Gout Gout said he felt right at home in his first senior outing on the global stage after clocking 20.33 seconds to finish third in his 200 metres heat on Wednesday and qualify for the world championship semi-finals.
The 17-year-old has attracted worldwide attention and earned comparisons to Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt since breaking his country’s long-standing 200m record and running a string of fast times over the last year.
With Bolt watching from the stands on another night of suffocating humidity in Tokyo, Gout got away to a relatively slow start in lane eight but soon had his long legs moving and fought his way to the front of the field before the second bend.
He coasted down the straight behind Jamaican Bryan Levell and Zimbabwean Makanakaishe Charamba, two of only three athletes in the heat who have run under 20 seconds, to assure himself of another race on Thursday.
“It feels pretty good,” Gout, perspiration pouring down his face, told reporters in the bowels of the National Stadium.
“It’s great experience for me, running against the big dogs is great. It’s great to be out here and I’m just excited for more. I’m just happy to be here and can’t wait for the semi.”
Gout has targeted beating his personal best of 20.02 in Tokyo but said he had not felt the need to go for it once he knew he would be in the top three and move into the semis.
“The start’s obviously not my strong suit but as soon as I get running, I’m chilling,” he added.
“I just felt that in my heat everyone wasn’t up against me, apart from the top two. So I just hit cruise control, last 50, last 30 (metres), and got the big Q. That’s what I needed.”
The Queenslander, the son of refugees from South Sudan, admitted to nerves before the race but said he would run with more freedom in the semis.
“It’s a free hit,” he said. “I’ll just go out there and run like a horse, run like the wind.”
The teenager, who will return to school for his leaving exams after the championships, said he still hoped to become the first Australian to go under 20 seconds in the 200m this week.
“Hey, that’s the goal,” he shrugged. “Let’s see in the semi.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Ed Osmond)
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