The promising debut of Gout Gout on the international stage has come to an end after he was eliminated at the world championships in a competitive semi-final in Tokyo.
The 17-year-old finished fourth in his race behind winner Bryan Levell, and missed out on the two additional time-based qualification places on offer after running a 20.36sec.
Although Torrie Lewis couldn’t progress in the women’s 200m either, Australia’s middle distance runners and high jumpers found success in the National Stadium on Thursday.
Three Australian women reached the semis in the 800m, including Jess Hull who was reinstated after being a victim of contact. And for the first time, two Australians will race in a 5000m world championships final.
Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson both progressed to the final in the high jump without a miss.
In the men’s 200m, Gout’s time was marginally slower than the 20.23sec he ran in his heat, and was well off the 20.02sec he produced to lower his own national record in a meet in Czechia in June.
But he was positive afterwards, and said he would build on this experience. “Semi-finalist, and to go out there and compete against the big guys, I couldn’t be prouder of myself for sure,” the teenager said.
Although he failed to improve on his personal best in Tokyo, his performances in the past two days represent a solid first major championships for the year 12 student. “Obviously, I was aiming for that sub-two [20 seconds], but today wasn’t the day, God didn’t allow it today, but I know for sure in the future, it’s going to be coming.”
The Australian would have needed to run 19.97sec to make the final, and the fastest qualifier, Noah Lyles, recorded the fastest time this year with 19.51sec.
Gout was the youngest athlete to compete in the 200m at the World Championships in Tokyo. He will soon return to Brisbane to complete his QCE exams, but not before watching Friday’s final.
“It’s definitely going to be a great final to watch, I’m going be cheering for Noah for sure,” he said.
Lewis finished fourth in her semi in a time of 22.69sec, 13 hundredths slower than her time in the heats, but the 20-year-old said she was still happy with how the meet went. “A pretty good championships I would say, two PBs, that’s what I asked for coming in.”
Claudia Hollingsworth and Abbey Caldwell progressed through the heats of the 800m, though the latter had a nervous wait after finishing outside the top-three automatic places.
“It’s a big sigh of relief, I mean I’m still a little bit disappointed in the way I had to go about it, but I consider myself pretty lucky,” Caldwell said. “I’ve got a whole new focus to lock into for the next 24 hours now and yeah, really count my lucky stars that I have another opportunity to redeem myself and show everyone that I’m a better athlete than I was tonight.”
They were joined later in the evening by Jess Hull, who won a bronze in the 1500m on Tuesday. She fell in the first lap of her 800m heat after contact in the pack. Her appeal was successful and she was awarded a place in the semis.
Saturday night will be the first time two Australian women have contested a 5000m final at a World Championships after Rose Davies and Linden Hall progressed from their heat. Davies, the national record holder, came home third and Hall – having already run a heat and semi-final in the 1500m on the weekend – finished in seventh just behind her.
In the men’s javelin, Cameron McEntyre finished 12th in the final after being unable to replicate his personal best throw of 80.03m in the qualification on Wednesday.
