'What a race': Gout Gout stunned by Lachlan Kennedy in Melbourne boilover

Gout Gout isn't Australia's only brilliant emerging male sprinter, as Lachlan Kennedy reminded the masses in a boilover victory at Melbourne's Maurie Plant Meet on Saturday night.

Kennedy, 21, specialises in the 100m and 60m — he won silver over the latter of those distances at the world athletics indoor championships last week — but on Saturday night he took on Gout in the 17-year-old sensation's pet event, the 200m, and roared to victory at Lakeside Stadium.

Kennedy won the Peter Norman Memorial in 20.26 seconds, Gout finished second in 20.30, and 21-year-old Calab Law took third in 20.78.

READ MORE: Folau's wish to face Lions rejected by Rugby Australia

READ MORE: NRL boss admits change must be made to 'disruptive' system

READ MORE: Hundreds storm field as South Australia snaps 29-year Shield drought

Kennedy exploded out of the blocks like a rocket and had a fair edge on Gout as he surged off the bend.

Gout produced a scorching second 100m — he always does — and for a fleeting moment a last-gasp victory for the Adidas-sponsored superstar appeared a possibility.

But Kennedy made a desperate dip, as did Gout, and the former clinched the win by four hundredths of a second.

Some 10,000 people had packed into the Albert Park venue to watch Gout — who in December broke the Australian open 200m record held by Peter Norman since the Mexico City 1968 Olympics — but Kennedy rained on the teen prodigy's parade.

"I'm absolutely gassed, [as] you can see," Kennedy told Seven post-race.

"I don't run many 200s. This is a bit of a different distance for me.

"But I'm just happy to be here.

"Australian sprinting is awesome right now. The depth is crazy. We've got good runners everywhere you look. I mean, [that's] spearheaded by Gout. He's a legend, he'll do many great things along the way. It's an absolute privilege to be a part of this group.

"What a race. My goal was to go out hard and I was just trying to hold him off and I got lucky this time."

Saturday night's race was Gout's first since he clocked 19.98 seconds to become the first Australian ever to run a sub-20-second 200m, albeit in illegal conditions.

"Like people say, winning feels great, coming second feels bad and third feels even worse, so coming second just puts fuel to my fire and it ignites that burn," Gout said.

"The silence was crazy out there. The silence was loud as people say. You could hear a pin drop and then suddenly everyone was screaming my name at the top of their lungs. This is something not a lot of people can say they experience. I'm just taking it step by step and enjoying the moment."

The fastest time Kennedy had clocked in a 200m prior to Saturday night was 20.93; a run in 2023 aided by a tailwind of +1.7 metres per second.

Not only did the Brisbane product smash his personal best in Melbourne, he smashed it with a tailwind of only +0.4.

He also ran a huge personal best despite having raced over 100m earlier in the night. He won that race, too, battling a headwind of -1.1 metres per second as he stopped the clock at 10.17.

Sebastian Sultana, the reigning 100m national champion, finished second in 10.29, and Rohan Browning, Australia's 100m semi-finalist at Tokyo 2020, took third in 10.30.

Lakeside Stadium was also lit up by 18-year-old middle-distance prodigy Cameron Myers, who executed an empathic front-running performance to win the men's 1500m, named in honour of John Landy, in 3:34.98.

Paris Olympian Adam Spencer finished second in 3:35.52, while Jude Thomas and Commonwealth Games champion Oliver Hoare tied for third in 3:36.48.

Kiwi Sam Ruthe, the 15-year-old who last week became the youngest in the world ever to run a sub-four-minute mile, finished seventh in 3:40.12 to lower the world age-15 best already belonging to him.

Rising middle-distance star Claudia Hollingsworth, 19, powered into the lead on the home straight of the women's 1500m to win in a meet record of 4:05.97.

Those at Lakeside Stadium witnessed an Olympic gold medallist run, but Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, the man who upstaged US showman Noah Lyles to win the men's 200m at the Paris Games, didn't contest his speciality event. The 21-year-old ran the 400m, and finished second. Botswana's Bayapo Ndori took the win in 45.14 seconds, ahead of Tebogo (45.26) and Leungo Scotch (45.60), who also hails from Botswana.

Paris 2024 bronze medallist Matt Denny won the men's discus with a top throw of 68.17 metres, falling only 1.18 centimetres short of his national record.