Gout Gout’s thrilling senior global debut has come to an end in the world championships 200m semi-finals in Tokyo.
On the first wet day of the championships, the 17-year-old schoolboy superstar came home fast to finish fourth in his semi in 20.36, with only the top two advancing straight through to Friday’s title race.
Jamaican Bryan Levell won Gout’s semi in 19.78.
Gout had been bidding to become the youngest man to qualify for a 200m world championships final, a record held by Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, who was 18 years and 157 days old when he contested the title race in London in 2017.
But the Queenslander can look forward to much bigger and better things in the years ahead, after wowing the track and field world on his senior championships debut in Tokyo.
He was the youngest man in the 200m field and the youngest man ever to be selected in an Australian team at a world athletics championships.
In the opening round on Wednesday, Gout overcame a sluggish start to advance in third place in his heat in 20.23.
He was unable to match that time in tougher wet conditions on Thursday night.
Two-time Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers and 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson both advanced to Sunday’s high jump final with ease.
The Australian duo both took only two jumps each in the qualifying round, with first-time clearances at 1.92m good enough for them to advance in equal first place alongside world record-holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine.
There was drama in the women’s 800m, with Australian 1500m bronze medallist Jessica Hull sent crashing to the track half a lap into her heat.
Hull picked herself up to finish the race well adrift of the lead pack and immediately signalled her intention to appeal.
Fellow Australians Claudia Hollingsworth and Abbey Caldwell advanced to the semi-finals.
New national record-holder Hollingsworth ran a controlled race to finish third in her heat in one minute 59.06 seconds and Cadwell (1:58.71) got through as one of the three fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
Australians Rose Davies and Linden Hall qualified for the women’s 5000m final after finishing fifth and seventh respectively in the second of two heats.
Georgia Griffith missed out after trailing home in 17th spot in the first heat.
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