March 29, 2025: Maurie Plant Meet. The day when the entire Lakeside Stadium fell into silence before erupting into loud cheers. The stage was set: Gout Gout, the man who hadn’t come second since his last three meets vs. the man who had just won the silver in World Indoors in 60m, Lachlan Kennedy. In an upset that followed, the 17-year-old lost to Kennedy. Clocking a 20.30 for the silver in 200m, the Australian track and field sensation was just 4 hundredths behind the first. Nonetheless, a lot of reactions came from different people, including a US track and field legend who made a prophecy. And what was it?

Justin Gatlin had drawn parallels between Quincy Wilson and Gout Gout. Just like Wilson had a bad start for the 2025 season, with the Virginia loss in 500m and the Millrose games upset, Justin compared the loss to Gout Gout’s miss. But Quincy later went on to claim the New Balance National Championship in 400m. “I believe the same thing Gout Gout can do, and I think Gout Gout is going to take this loss, and he’s mentally going to prepare himself to be even a bigger competitor,” Gatlin predicted in one of the episodes of Ready Set Go about a week ago.  He even told him how to do it!

The Olympian told the teenager that he must make a hit list. He told him if he wanted to beat Noah Lyles, then he should put his name on the hit list. He continued, “Put all the names of the people you respect in that in that discipline the 200 And you every time you race against them be true to yourself. Give yourself a mark, meaning they beat you, or you give them a mark next to their name, meaning you beat them.  And you hold tally, and that’ll give you the confidence, and I’ll give you the clarity of your progression going forward.” Now, who knows if the Aussie did see the podcast or not, but he did make sure of Gatlin’s prophecy of him becoming a bigger competitor.

On April 10, 2025, Gout Gout took his mark on the track. Racing for the 100m event in the Australian Athletics championships, he claimed the number 1 spot in both the heats and the finals. And the timings? Insane!!! Somebody makes sure he is not closely related to the DC superhero Flash because both of these races were run under the 10-second barrier. He closed 9.99 seconds in both the 100m heats and finals.

Though wind once again wind played a very crucial role here. Gout Gout and Kennedy might be rivals but seeing how every time he breaks a record, there’s wind, Kennedy might have competition.

It’s Wind vs Gout Gout again

“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Have a look at this,” said the commentator with a certain excitement in his voice as Gout Gout ran past the finish line. But has he? The excitement started to subside as the commentator next questioned, “Is it legal? The win reading we’re about to get. He switched off, did not dip, and he has run something extraordinary. This can come down, this can come down.” But did it?

Sadly, it did not come down. Wind assistance was a 3.5m/s tailwind in the heat. The final time was aided by a 2.6m/s tailwind. So it won’t be counted as his official personal best. Only Australian record holder Patrick Johnson (9.93sec legal) and Olympic semi-finalist Rohan Browning (9.96sec illegal +3.3 wind) have broken 10 seconds. The 17-year-old is now the third Australian to run the 100m quicker than 10s in any conditions.

The Aussie reflected, “Sometimes it’s frustrating, but you know, you can’t control what you can’t control, and the wind is obviously a thing you can’t control. You’ve got to learn how to run with it or run against it.” This is not the first time the wind has done this to him. Earlier this year, he broke the 20-second barrier for the 200m, recording a world-leading 19.98 seconds, with wind assistance- +3.6m/s.

He continued, “Sub-10 is something every sprinter hopes for, and to get this early in the season is definitely great, so to gain that sub-10 definitely boosts my confidence, especially for my main event, the 200.” He will be racing in the 200m on April 13th. Any prophecies you might want to make?