Gout Gout fanfare obscures depth of Australian athletics poised for world championships spotlight | World Athletics Championships

The sudden rise of sprint phenomenon Gout Gout has triggered an explosion of interest in athletics, but it has also obscured the sport’s growing depth in Australia which is poised for the spotlight at the world championships in Japan starting on Saturday.

Despite the hype, Gout is far from Australia’s best chance of success in the hot and humid National Stadium in inner Tokyo. The team totals 86 athletes – 22 more than in Budapest in 2023 – and Australia has never sent a larger group to a global meet. There are as many as 10 genuine medal contenders, including 21 Australian athletes seeded higher than the Brisbane high school student.

The teenager’s seeding of 16 suggests he will do well just to make it to the semi-finals and remain competitive in his first major meet, alongside the likes of Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo, Kenny Bednarek and the rest of the world’s fastest men, even if some – including veteran commentator Bruce McAvaney and fellow sprinter Lachlan Kennedy – believe he could go all the way to the final.

Kennedy, the man who beat Gout over 200m in Melbourne in March, had to withdraw from the Tokyo championships due to a back injury, but has watched the year 12 student at Brisbane school events in recent weeks, including one when he was hand-timed at under 10 seconds over 100m.

“He looks hungry, he looks ready, and normally in people’s first majors against opens [competitors], they can be a bit nervous, but I think he’ll be more than ready for the moment,” says Kennedy, who will be commentating for SBS.

Despite his speed across the shorter distance, Gout has decided to skip the 100m and relay events and focus on the 200m, for which he will wait until Wednesday to race in the heats. Eyes will instead be focused on other events across the weekend, including the 100m heats and finals for women and men.

Usain Bolt delivers message to Australian sprint talent Gout Gout – video

In the absence of Kennedy – who became the second Australian to run sub-10s in May – Rohan Browning looms as the man most likely to push for a spot in the final. No Australian man has finished better than the seventh place secured by Paul Narracott in Helsinki in 1983. But Browning set his personal best of 10.01s at the same venue in Tokyo in 2021, and the 27-year-old has changed his coach this year as he chases the elusive sub-10s time.

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“[Browning] said this year things have really clicked for him and it’s evident,” says Kennedy, who was beaten by his compatriot at April’s national titles by less than one-hundredth of a second. “He’s had an unreal season, he’s been running the best he’s ever run, and he can do something really special.”

The most medals Australia has won at a world championships is six, at Budapest two years ago. The absence of two of those medallists in Tokyo – walker Jemima Montag and Paris gold-winning pole vaulter Nina Kennedy, who have withdrawn with injuries – means it will take an impressive showing by the remainder of the team to top that tally.

But a better reflection of the progress of Australian athletics, as the sport looks to the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, is tracking those who finish in the top eight. At each of the past two world championships 11 Australians reached that threshold, the second highest behind the 13 from the 1999 edition in Seville.

A table showing the number of Australian athletes who won gold, silver and bronze medals and finished in the top 8 in past world championships

In the extreme competition among sprinters, Kennedy describes a top eight finish as “special” and predicts Tokyo will be “one of our best majors yet,” with each of Australia’s 10 sprinters having “a good shot” at making semis, and “a couple” in contention for finals.

No Australian woman has made the 100m final at a world championships, but Kennedy believes Torrie Lewis, the 20-year-old who set the 100m national record of 11.10s at the start of last year, and again went under 11.20s last month, has a strong chance. Lewis is now training with the Netherlands’ top sprinters under coach Laurent Meuwly.

“She has got more potential than anybody, she has got an insane work ethic, her drive is crazy and you can tell she really, really wants it more than anyone,” Kennedy says. “If she can just put it all together, there is no reason why she can’t make a final.”

Nicola Olyslagers trains at National Stadium ahead of the world championships. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Despite the excitement on the track, more of Australia’s medals are likely to come in field events from athletes such as Diamond League champion high jumper Nicola Olyslagers, discus thrower Matt Denny, and pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall, who was the bronze medallist in Budapest with a personal best clearance of 5.95m.

His event gets under way on Saturday, and he said he is looking forward to returning to the same venue four years after a disappointing Olympic campaign. “I no-heighted in the final [in 2021],” he says, speaking outside a coffee shop minutes from Japan’s National Stadium on Friday. “So I’ve got some demons to slay.”

Marshall overcame an ankle dislocation last year to battle bravely for sixth in Paris, sharing the stage with superstar Swede Armand Duplantis in one of the sport’s marquee events. But the Australian has returned to form in 2025 and is now ranked fourth in the world. He will vault in the heats on Saturday evening, before a final looms on Monday night. “I’m going to need 5.90m or 5.95m to get a medal,” he says. “But I’m just excited to be part of it.”