Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy miss out on final as Stawell Gift favourites upset
Gout ran a strong race to finish the 120m in 12.34s but couldn't quite catch front-marker John Evans who had almost nine metres head start on the 17-year-old and won by almost a quarter of a second.
'I thought I was coming pretty hard, and when we had like 20, 10 [metres] left he was pretty ahead of me,' Gout said. 'I tried my hardest but he got me at the end. It is what it is.'
Kennedy finished in 12.26s but it wasn't quick enough, as he finished second in a tight semi-final to Dash Muir, another 17-year-old in the field, by less than a tenth of a second.
Only the winners of the six semi-finals reach Monday's afternoon's final, although Gout and Kennedy will now take part in the traditional backmarkers' race.
The men's races were interrupted by a heavy rain shower that triggered a power failure for broadcaster Channel Seven and forced a delay of several minutes before the final two semi-finals.
Gout spent the time in the rain with jacket on.
'Running in the rain is a bit harder than usual, but you can't handle the weather, so you just got to adjust,' he said.
In the women's semi-finals, last year's champion Chloe Mannix-Power was eliminated after finishing third behind Jemma Stapleton, a front-marker off 11m. Mannix-Power ran a personal best over 100m in finishing fourth at last week's Australian titles, but running off scratch proved too much of an ask.
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The woman who finished one place in front of her in at the nationals, Bree Rizzo, also ran off scratch, but she started well and won her semi-final comfortably. She is aiming to follow in the footsteps of her husband Matt Rizzo who won the Stawell Gift in 2017.
'Honestly, the field is strong. I'm going to have to bring my absolute best to get to the front from scratch,' Rizzo said. 'But that's what I love about the Stawell Gift, I love the challenge and the atmosphere.'
Melissa Breen is the only woman to win the race off scratch, in 2012. The finals are contested later on Monday afternoon.
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