Lachlan Kennedy does it again, defeating teen sensation Gout Gout in 200m blockbuster
Updated . First published at
Lachlan Kennedy has stunned Gout Gout again, taking down the teen superstar in the 200 metres at Melbourne's Maurie Plant Meet for the second year running.
And the 22-year-old from Brisbane retained the Peter Norman Memorial title in eerily similar fashion to last year — exploding into the lead around the bend and, as his younger rival came home like a bullet, holding on to win by inches.
The most highly anticipated event of the biggest meet in Australian athletics was won by Kennedy in 20.38 seconds, .05 of a second ahead of Gout.
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Rain began to fall just minutes before the rematch — then Kennedy rained on Gout's parade to remind Australia, and the world, that Gout is not the only gun sprinter Down Under.
Kennedy bagged the sprint double on Saturday night, winning the 100m in 10.03 seconds prior to his defeat of Gout in the 200m.
Gout only raced in the longer sprint, the $6 million Adidas prodigy's pet event.
Lachie Kennedy beating Gout Gout in the 200m on Saturday night. Getty
Kennedy said he was "pretty fried".
"So I knew I had to hit it hard and just pray, just pray, and hold on, and I was able to do it tonight," Kennedy told Seven.
"But yeah, as you can tell, I'm pretty cooked.
"Back to back, it doesn't get much better than that. I just went out there and gave it my all. The rain came in when I started running so it was just a hard, gritty run.
"I don't listen to the noise that much. I just go out there and try and beat whoever is in front of me."
Kennedy relishes his rivalry with the 18-year-old sensation from Ipswich.
"I mean, every time we race it's like cinema," he said.
"I'm loving it."
Lachlan Kennedy signing his autograph after retaining his 200m Maurie Plant Meet title. Getty
Gout's start is not a strength of his at the best of times. He found it particularly difficult in the rain.
"It was a bit rocky," he told Seven.
"I mean, it is what it is. It's a bit weird, but [these are] things you learn and things you've got to focus on."
Grinning, he admitted that with rain coming down he was thinking "get this over and done with".
Neither Kennedy nor Gout actually had the fastest personal best of the 200m field. The man with that claim was African-Irishman Benjamin Richardson, who's run a 19.99, but the international recruit was a long way off the pace in Melbourne, finishing sixth in 20.97.
In Kennedy's 100m win, the Queenslander shattered a meet record held by former world record holder Asafa Powell.
He tore through the 100m in 10.03 seconds to conquer a field that included Rohan Browning, the Sydney speed demon who reached the 100m semi-finals at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics.
Browning finished second in 10.25 and Kiwi Tiaan Whelpton took third in 10.29.
Kennedy broke the meet record set by Jamaican sprint legend Powell in 2008, when the event was called the Melbourne Track Classic. Powell ran 10.04 on that night 18 years ago.
The 100m field had the boost of a minor tailwind measuring +0.3 metres per second on Saturday night.
Kennedy was mere inches ahead of Browning at the halfway point. He then extended his gap on his older rival to about a metre and a half as he rocketed home.
It was a scintillating way for the Brisbane speedster to mark his return to the 100m, having not raced a 100m since July last year because of a stress fracture in his back.
He made his return to racing last month at the Hobart Track Classic, where he banked a dominant win over 200m.
In Kenya in May last year, Kennedy became just the second Australian in history to crack the iconic 10-second barrier in legal wind conditions, stopping the clock at 9.98 seconds.
