'Athletics is back in a big way': Gout Gout inspires 24-year commercial first

Teen sprint sensation Gout Gout's looming appearance at Melbourne's Maurie Plant Meet has inspired a 24-year commercial first in Australian athletics.

For the first time since 2001, when Albert Park's Lakeside Stadium hosted two IAAF grand prix events, including that season's final, a one-day Australian athletics meet has sold out.

Australian Athletics (AA) said in a statement on Friday afternoon that a capacity crowd of 10,000 people would pile into Lakeside Stadium on Saturday night.

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Big crowds were pulled in 2001 in the afterglow of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and with the help of middle-distance greats Hicham El Guerrouj and Bernard Lagat travelling Down Under to race.

Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, the reigning Olympic gold medallist in the men's 200 metres, will contest the 400m at the Melbourne meet.

But the major driver of the 24-year first was undoubtedly Gout, who will race over 200m in the Peter Norman Memorial.

The Ipswich-born prodigy clocked 20.04 seconds in December to break what was previously the Australian open record in the 200m — the 20.06 set by Norman at the Mexico City 1968 Olympics.

Gout's time of 20.04, run when he was still 16, eclipsed the fastest time (20.13) recorded by Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt at the same age.

Aged 17, Gout achieved another staggering feat this month when he blazed through a 200m in 19.98 seconds to become the first Australian ever to crack the 20-second barrier, albeit with an illegal wind at his back.

He was only 16 when he inked an eight-year deal with Adidas said to be worth $6 million a year, and he's produced a series of runs as a teenager that have gone viral on a global scale.

Bolt even remarked after one of Gout's runs: "He looks like young me".

AA chief executive Simon Hollingsworth said the Maurie Plant Meet had "captured the public's imagination".

"To sell out a one-day athletics meet in Australia for the first time in over two decades is exciting — not just for the event, but for the athletes and the sport overall. Athletics is back in a big way," Hollingsworth said.

"We're seeing the rise of young stars like Gout Gout go global, we're edging close to a group of athletes running sub-10 seconds in the blue-riband 100m event, and medal hauls at the Olympics and almost every World Athletics global event.

"Athletics has become an entertainment product once more and fans are responding."

Among Gout's competitors in the 200m will be 21-year-old Lachlan Kennedy, who claimed silver in the 60m at the world athletics indoor championships in China last week.

Kennedy has a 100m personal best of 10.03 and is among a host of sprinters aiming to become the first Australian since 2003, and only the second Australian in history, to shatter the 10-second barrier.

Among the other stars set to compete at the Maurie Plant Meet are 18-year-old middle-distance prodigy Cameron Myers and precocious 15-year-old Kiwi Sam Ruthe, who this month became the youngest in the world ever to run a sub-four-minute mile.

Myers, Ruthe and Commonwealth Games champion Oliver Hoare will race over 1500m in the John Landy Memorial.

High jumper Eleanor Patterson is another star to watch, fresh off winning silver at the world indoor championships.