Lachie Kennedy's commercial portfolio is taking off. This classy gesture for Gout Gout set corporate tongues wagging

The man in charge of managing Australian sprint powerhouse Lachie Kennedy's steadily expanding commercial profile reckons there are two attributes that make him a bumper attraction for brands.

And neither is the bleeding obvious: an ability to run blindingly fast.

One, in the eyes of Alastair Stevenson of White Line Management, is the 22-year-old's authenticity. The other, true in some regards in the context of his rivalry with teen sensation Gout Gout, is his underdog tag.

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The two Queenslanders will square off in Sydney over 200 metres at the Australian athletics championships, beginning on Thursday, just over a week on from their latest 200-metre showdown at Melbourne's Maurie Plant Meet.

"He's very different to Gout — very different," Stevenson told Wide World of Sports.

"Gout's absolutely exploded. It's phenomenal the money and the interest that he's generated, and that only helps all of our athletes.

"But I think Lachie's biggest asset is the fact that he's really, really authentic.

"And I think Australians, by nature, always like to see an underdog do well. If all the hype is around Gout and then Lachie comes out and beats him, they just love it, you know? People are drawn to it."

In some ways, the idea of Kennedy being an underdog in his rivalry with Gout feels strange. Kennedy, not Gout, has (legally) cracked the magical 10-second barrier; Kennedy, not Gout, has medalled at a senior global championship; and Kennedy, not the teenager, has claimed the past two Maurie Plant Meet 200m titles.

Then again, Gout has the $6 million Adidas sponsorship, the comparisons to Usain Bolt, the viral clips and that general Hollywood-like buzz. And, of course, it was Gout who broke the iconic national 200m record set by Peter Norman in 1968 at the Mexico City Olympic Games — a feat Gout achieved when he was still a schoolboy.

Commercial interest in Kennedy has picked up, without sky-rocketing, in the wake of his 200m victory last Saturday night, notched up in strikingly similar fashion to his 200m win over Gout at the 2025 Maurie Plant Meet.

The highest-profile and most lucrative of Kennedy's sponsorships is his deal with Nike.

He's also sponsored by Hydralyte, a giant of the hydration market, and Dexcom, a healthcare company that produces glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management. Kennedy was diagnosed with type-one diabetes when he was 15. It's why he runs with a bandage around his arm.

He's also an ambassador for insurance company AAMI, car manufacturing giant Kia and watch brand Longines, and has an elite athlete scholarship with Griffith University, where he studies engineering and business.

One classy moment involving Kennedy and Gout at last year's national championships in Perth set tongues wagging in the corporate world, Stevenson said.

Kennedy was disqualified from the 200m final because of a false start. He then watched on as Gout stormed to the title in a scorching 19.84 seconds. A beautiful embrace at the finish line followed, Kennedy scampering down the track to congratulate Gout and celebrate with his younger rival. Smiling and yahooing, they leapt high in the air, bumped chests, and shared a big hug.

"And that wasn't put on; that was genuine," Stevenson said.

"And lot of people and companies have talked about that.

"I can't put a word on it, but there's something in him that you're just drawn to him. It's just the genuine nature of him, and it speaks volumes of his family."

Gout signed a $6 million deal with Adidas when he was still 16. He also inked a deal with Vegemite in February. They are the only two brands who've secured the prized signature of the 18-year-old superstar, whose racing schedule, media commitments and commercial profile are managed meticulously by athletics agent James Templeton.

While Stevenson looks after Kennedy's commercial portfolio, the Brisbane speedster's Nike deal and racing schedule are managed by Melbourne Track Club.

"I think the most important thing for us is just aligning the right people, the right companies with Lachie's values and his journey, and finding companies that are supportive of that and believe in him," Stevenson said.

"It's all about long-term stuff because he's got a good, big, bright future in the sport, and if you've got these people that have supported your career, then maybe there's a future for life after sprinting with them, as well."

White Line Management looks after several athletes in Australian athletics. Among them are world champion high jumper Nicola Olyslagers, 800m runner Peyton Craig, half-marathon national record holder Jack Rayner, and Kennedy.

It's the job of marketing professionals like Stevenson to maximise the commercial potential of Australian athletes on the runway to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

And in Gout, Kennedy, Claudia Hollingsworth, Torrie Lewis, Leah O'Brien, Delta Amidzovski, Cameron Myers and a handful of other gems, there's a considerable number of youngsters in Australian athletics capable of becoming the faces of brands leading up to the home Games.

"Leading into Brisbane 2032, that's where all these athletes are gonna be able to see value in their careers, and I hope these athletes can be seen as genuine sports stars and have a big career and make money that they should be making, and not just once every four years when the Olympics come around," Stevenson said.

"If these guys continue on the same trajectory, oh my goodness, they're all going to have a great career, and hopefully they can walk away and have a house and have invested money and be able to look back on their athletics career and go, 'It was successful financially'.

"It's really important that these athletes get exposure and we can tell their story, and we also allow them to develop as people and as a business, rather than them just running or doing whatever in this sport and then stopping and going, 'Oh heck, what am I gonna do now?'

"What I'm trying to do is tell these athletes' stories and get companies to jump on their journeys."