Panic time for Gout Gout fans? The Usain Bolt blips at 18 that prove Aussie is still on track for greatness

As some rush to hit the panic button in the wake of Gout Gout's second consecutive defeat to Lachlan Kennedy, one thing is certain: the teen sprint sensation and his camp are not worrying.

In fact, the word out of the Gout camp in the days after his loss to Kennedy over 200 metres at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne on Saturday night is the 18-year-old is buzzing.

Gout's admiration for fellow Queenslander Kennedy is enormous and he considers himself fortunate to have such steep competition in domestic races.

READ MORE: 'Ask Cricket Australia': $4m Green blocked from IPL duties

READ MORE: 'Not going to recover': Why Voss axing now feels inevitable

READ MORE: 'Is it worth it?': Verstappen ponders F1 retirement

Plus, there is a belief in some quarters that he slipped on the wet track four or five metres into his run, and an understanding that his ideal conditions — 28 degrees and a +0.5 tailwind, or thereabouts — were nothing like the conditions thrown up for Gout v Kennedy II.

That the Ipswich-born superstar was able to clock 20.43 seconds in wet and mild conditions, and into a headwind measuring -0.7 metres per second, is encouraging for the Gout camp.

Incidentally, while it may be true that the conditions thrown up on Saturday night were a hindrance to Gout and less so for Kennedy, Gout's camp understands he's got to be ready to win regardless of what the weather gods toss up.

It's worth remembering that only five thousandths of a second separated the two sprint powerhouses.

It's also worth remembering, or realising, that Kennedy is a world-class sprinter. The Brisbane speed demon has flown under the radar amid Gout mania, but Australia boasts two, not one, supreme male sprint talents.

And it's worth remembering that Kennedy, 22, is four years Gout's senior.

Gout lost the race at Lakeside Stadium — but he still ran well and there's no reason to worry.

Consider that for all the success Usain Bolt enjoyed throughout his unrivalled career he, too, encountered some early blips.

The Jamaican didn't get out of the heats at his first senior major championship. Aged 18, he struggled through his heat of the 200m at the Athens 2004 Olympics in 21.05 seconds, finishing fifth.

At Gout's debut senior major championship, the Tokyo world titles in September last year, he did what Bolt didn't do in his first crack at the big time. Aged 17, he ran 20.23 seconds in his heat of the 200m to nab a spot in the semi-finals, where he ultimately bowed out.

No 16-year-old in world history has run as fast a 200m as Gout did when he broke Peter Norman's 56-year-old open-age Australian record at the national school titles in Brisbane in December 2024. Gout ran 20.04 on that historic day, .09 of a second faster than Bolt ran as a 16-year-old.

Another scary indication of just how talented Gout is was an observation made by Australian sprint great John Steffensen last year, when the $6 million Adidas prodigy was still 17.

In an interview with Wide World of Sports, the Commonwealth 400m gold medallist said Gout's ankle mechanics were on par with those of Bolt, Carl Lewis, Maurice Green and Donovan Bailey — some of the greatest sprinters to have graced the planet, including the greatest.

"I haven't seen many people cover the ground like Gout does," Steffensen said.

"The way his foot engages with the ground and how it recovers, it looks like he's tip-toeing over the ground.

"... I think he's in that rarefied atmosphere of the athletes who've best been able to do that.

"In their prime, the best at doing that have been Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt and Maurice Greene. Donovan Bailey did it well, too, and Frankie Fredericks and Obadele Thompson.

"Gout is so young, and with that ability to do that, it's crazy."

Don't consider the wild talent and fret about unfulfilled potential; consider the wild talent and believe.

It may be lost on some that Gout is mere months into life as a full-time professional athlete. He signed a $6 million deal with Adidas when he was still 16, but he only graduated from year 12 at Ipswich Grammar School last year.

"I've gotten a lot better training in [since finishing school], especially being able to train for longer and more times a week," Gout told reporters at the Queensland championships a fortnight ago.

"And without the stress of school definitely helps a lot, knowing that I don't have to go tomorrow to do an exam, you know what I mean?"

Could the hype be getting to Gout? Could the relentless comparisons to Bolt, the viral clips, the intense fascination of the public and media and the mammoth Adidas price tag be wearing down the young guy?

It's not likely given the showmanship of the lad. This is not just a young man who can run frighteningly fast; this is a young man who's cut out for the bright lights.

"In F1, you know how the cars are warming up the tyres?" Gout said in Tokyo ahead of last year's world titles, talking to a cast of reporters spanning all over the globe.

"I think they'll be exactly like that.

"They'll be ready to rumble."

He is one cool customer — a reality not lost on Adidas marketing kingpin Spencer Nel.

"When somebody like this comes along, it's special," Nel told WWOS last year.

He has a great support network around him, too. Long-time athletics agent James Templeton calls the shots off the track, Di Sheppard has turned heads around the world with her coaching aplomb, by his side as a friend and mentor is a top-class citizen and athlete in Peter Bol, and his family — his dad Bona, mum Monica and six siblings — are there every step of the way.

Gout's north star is winning the sprint double — gold in the 100m and 200m — at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

And there's no reason to worry at this stage about where he is on the most mesmerising journey in Australian sport.