When some of the fastest sprinters are told to notice, history is in the making. As the 2025 World Championships inch closer, one teenage sprinter is turning heads, dropping jaws, and clocking times that have top-tier athletes having to check their rearview mirrors. And after his latest performance, a respected track & field coach had just one message for Noah Lyles and the rest of the sprinting elite: ignore him at your own risk!

“Forget about his age, we’re talking now about an athlete who is near the top of the world leaderboards, wind-legal, in the month of May,” said the Track and Field Coach, Rob, in his latest YouTube video on May 24th. The same day, Bayanda Walaza has just dropped a banger of a performance at the Zagreb Meeting– 9.94s. The third fastest in the 2025 season. Rob said, “That same athlete is an Olympic medalist in the 4×1 and just won the World Relays.”

Then came coach Rob’s stark warning: “He’s likely going to be in whatever professional races we see him in going forward, as long as he wants to run like this. And, well, going to be in a lot of professional races with Gout, Gout for that matter. Soon to be the men who have medals on the world stage: Noah Lyles, Fred Kerley, whoever else. And when they see that young man get onto the starting line, they had better take him seriously.”

And he wasn’t just hyping up the moment—he meant every word. Coach Rob doubled down on his assessment of Bayanda’s rising stock in the sprinting world, making it clear that this wasn’t a one-off. The coach further brought to notice that, “This is somebody who, again, forgetting about the age, we are going to have to take seriously. I don’t think anybody’s really expecting Bayanda Walaza to get a medal at the Worlds, but the idea that he’s going to be there and that he’s likely going to be there at least in the semi-finals and the only way you keep him out of that final is you’re probably going to have to run 9.8-something. which is a very short list of men in the world who can actually do it.”

The 2025 World Athletics Championships will be held from September 13 to 21, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan, and Lyles had his eyes laser-focused on claiming three gold medals in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay. His best time in 100 meters is 9.79, which would have been good until Walaza’s best was 9.99, but now with the 9.94, the Olympic champion must also sweat.

Further explaining how he is weak at predicting the future speeds of athletes, Coach Rob said, ”but I do get the sense when you look at Walaza that there’s a whole lot more speed untapped. It’s one thing to be the favorite to win a professional race, especially when you have a personal best of 9.99 seconds in the 100-meter dash Walaza did that earlier this year,” On March 15, 2025, at the Athletics Gauteng North Championships in Pretoria Walaza made history by clocking 9.99 seconds in the men’s 100m final.

“But it’s another thing to not just be the favorite, but go out there and demolish,” Rob continued. Gift Leotlela finished second with a time of 10.17 seconds, which speaks volumes about how Walaza dominated the race. But he is not the only young gun to be afraid of in the Worlds. 

Bayanda Walaza vs Gout Gout

Bayanda Walaza and Gout Gout, two of the most promising young sprinters, are set to compete at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo from 13 to 21 September. Walaza, a 19-year-old South African, has qualified for both the 100m and 200m events. Gout, a 17-year-old Australian, will make his senior debut in the 200m. At just 19 and 17, respectively, both athletes have already broken barriers that seasoned professionals spend years chasing. Walaza burst into the global spotlight with his historic 9.99s in the 100m, making him the first South African U20 athlete to break the 10-second barrier.

Meanwhile, Gout Gout stunned athletics fans with a blistering 19.84s wind-assisted 200m run—one of the fastest ever by an under-20 athlete—setting the stage for a thrilling rivalry. The young track and field prodigy was running faster than Usain Bolt when you compare both 17. The boy has also trained with Noah Lyles.

At the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, in the men’s 200m final, Walaza secured the gold medal with a time of 20.52 seconds, while Gout claimed silver, finishing in 20.60 seconds, a personal best at the time.  Who do you think will win when they collide this time around?