‘I don't feel any pressure' – Sprint sensation Gout Gout (17) sets new target after first race in Europe
Australian teenage sprinter Gout Gout crushed the 200 metres field in his first senior race abroad, bettering his own national record by two hundredths of a second to finish in 20.02 seconds at the Ostrava Golden Spike.
The 17-year-old ran a textbook race in his European debut at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event in the Czech Republic, crossing the line 0.17 seconds ahead of Cuban Reynier Mena, while Briton Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (20.60) was third.
"I feel good. New personal best, new national record in my first European race," the Queensland schoolboy told reporters.
"I don't feel any pressure. Because as soon as I step out on that track, it's just me by myself and what I've got to do my favourite thing, and that's to run.
"So, I just go out there and run and nothing stops me from doing that ... Get some more races in me and [the 20-second barrier] will drop for sure."
Gout has drawn comparisons to Jamaican great Usain Bolt and he made headlines in December when he broke Peter Norman's national record that had stood for 56 years in 20.04.
He ran a 19.84-second 200 and 9.99 seconds in the 100m at the Australian national championships in Perth in April but a strong tailwind rendered both illegal.
His performances were strong enough, however, to earn him a spot on Australia's team for the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
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In the 31 years since the United States last hosted the men's World Cup, a few things remain unchanged. Recent politics notwithstanding, the US population is diverse and air travel is relatively easy, so international games tend to attract supporters no matter where they live. As long as ticket prices are reasonable, a good crowd is a good bet. Also, it still gets really hot in the summer. This, of course, is not news. It was a major subplot of the 1994 World Cup, it will be a major subplot of the 2026 edition — which the US will co-host with Canada and Mexico as the climate crisis makes heatwaves more likely — and it's a major subplot of the Club World Cup this summer. The 19th-century Englishmen who wrote the first official Laws of the Game probably didn't anticipate the brutal heat that players often have to endure in a US summer, but everyone else should. Some rules of basic mathematics and climate are incontrovertible. 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They're not the first European squad to come to the east coast and notice, in the words of Jimmy Buffett, changes in latitude and changes in attitude. Philadelphia is 10 degrees closer to the equator than London — and Philly is one of the more northerly venues in this summer's Club World Cup. It is, in the organizers' defense, not usually this hot in Philadelphia or New York, and the one hot game in Pasadena was an aberration. Still, temperatures in the mid-30sC/mid-90sF are hardly unusual in Orlando or Charlotte. (Nor are they unusual in Atlanta, but teams assigned to play there are breathing comfortably in the air conditioning under the dome of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.) And even with cool Seattle in the mix, the median temperature through Monday's games was 81F (27C), with a median heat index of 87F (31C) and the dewpoint at a muggy 68F. This suggests European teams will have a problem with temperatures this summer and at next year's World Cup; that Chelsea were at a disadvantage against the Tunisian champions even before they kicked off. And that's the reason why teams from Brazil, where the state leagues play in the southern hemisphere's summer, have impressed so far in this tournament. Perhaps that could be a function of the long-held stereotype that Latin America plays possession football to conserve energy in the heat while Europeans run around like maniacs, afraid that they'll freeze if they stand still too long. Botafogo are among the Brazilian clubs who have thrived at the Club World Cup. Picture:But the limited data from major tournaments in the US doesn't support the notion that European teams are doomed to wilt in a North American summer. Seven of the eight quarter-finalists at USA 1994 were from Europe. 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These games, along with the decidedly mixed results in Qatar in 2022, aren't a particularly convincing sample size. And we have very little to go on for club games, aside from the pre-season friendlies in which European clubs sleepwalk their way through steamy matches that rake in money from US fans drawn to the stadiums by celebrity and cosplay. This Club World Cup has seen a handful of notable upsets, but they don't seem attributable to the weather. Inter Miami beat Porto indoors in Atlanta. Botafogo stunned Paris Saint-Germain on a mild night in Pasadena, also the site of the Mexican side Monterrey's draw against Italy's Inter. Auckland City drew with Boca Juniors, but, if anything, it's the Argentinians who are more used to the heat. That leaves us with Chelsea, who lost to the Brazilian side Flamengo in warm Philadelphia. 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Irish Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
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Athlete wins 400m hurdles despite penis falling out of shorts and needing to
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