Olympic men’s 200m sprint champion Letsile Tebogo believes Australian teenager Gout Gout can secure a place in athletics history books if he maintains his level of motivation.
The two track stars will appear at the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne on Saturday, but will not race each other.
Tebogo has chosen to compete in the 400m while Gout will race in the climax of the evening schedule, the Peter Norman Memorial 200m, which also includes Australia’s current fastest man Lachie Kennedy and national champion Calab Law.
Gout beat Norman’s Australian record in December which had stood for more than half a century with a time of 20.04s.
Tebogo – who overcame Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek in the Paris 200m final with a time of 19.46s – said Gout’s style is “top notch” and he is set to be “the next big thing” for Australia.
“He can be one of the best, he could be in the history books if he continues with the hunger that he has right now, he could go very far,” the 21-year-old said.
But he warned that Gout – as a 17-year-old – should remember to take things slow and shouldn’t always compete in opens races just because he can.
“My advice to his coach and people around him would be – even if he can beat these seniors on Saturday – don’t let him stay too much on the seniors, because everybody is watching,” the Botswana athlete said.
“If he beats the seniors, what’s going to be next? So after this, back to his age [group] and slowly but surely, he will get there.”
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The meet in Melbourne promises a highly-anticipated showdown between Gout and Lachie Kennedy, the world indoor silver medallist for 60m who has emerged as Australia’s fastest man with a time of 10.03s over 100m earlier this month.
He said he hoped to crack the 10-second barrier this Saturday in the 100m, and he was confident he could back up and improve on his personal best of 21.19s in the 200m later in the evening.
“I just want to be able to see where I am compared to someone like Gout, who obviously is pretty much there when it comes to the 19-second barrier,” he said.
A packed scheduled also includes a competitive John Landy Memorial mens 1500m including Cameron Myers, Olli Hoare, Peter Bol, Adam Spencer and 15-year-old Kiwi star Sam Ruthe, who became the first 15-year-old to run a mile in under four minutes just a week ago.
Eleanor Patterson will compete in the women’s high jump a week after her silver at the world indoors, and the women’s 1500m will feature Olympians Linden Hall, Claudia Hollingsworth, and Abbey Caldwell.
Australian Athletics chief executive Simon Hollingsworth said he expected a near capacity crowd of 10,000 at Lakeside for the sport’s annual showpiece event, given ticket sales are up almost 50% on last year.
“We’re in for a really golden decade, and we’re at the start of that, and already the performance is incredible,” he said.
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“We had our best Olympics [in Paris] since 1956 and that was a different era, and we’ve built on that. We’ve just finished second in the medal count at the world indoors and we don’t even have an indoor track in Australia.”
He said Australia “was batting pretty deep” with its talent and the “phenomenal” Gout had helped introduce athletics to new fans, allowing the sport tap into more commercial opportunities.
“The more interest in the sport, the more we can track eyeballs, the more we can attract commercial partners,” he said.
“It would have an impact, but I don’t want to pile too much on Gout, because he’s a young, 17-year-old boy who’s still at school. We want to support him to achieve his dreams, that’s the number one goal.”
