The emergence of Gout Gout has supercharged Australian interest in the World Athletics Championships which get under way this week in Tokyo, where Olympic medallists such as Jess Hull and Matt Denny will be vying for the podium in broadcasts beamed into living rooms at prime time in the evening.
Both Channel Nine and SBS will screen the nine days of competition in an unusual free-to-air double act, and 14 Australian journalists have been accredited for the event – more than twice the number that attended the 2023 edition in Hungary.
Veteran commentator Bruce McAvaney described Gout – who beat Peter Norman’s historic 200m national record last year – as an “exceptional” talent.
“He may be 17, but I think it’s possible for him to reach the 200m final in Tokyo, which would be an extraordinary achievement at his age – even Usain Bolt couldn’t do that,” McAvaney said.
Gout may be the main attraction, but his emergence comes during what McAvaney has described as a “golden age” of Australian athletics.
“A world championship is as great a challenge as an Olympics,” he said. “But this Australian team boasts as much depth as I can remember.”
Australia won seven athletics medals in the Olympics in the French capital last year. Only at Melbourne 1956 did the country win more.
Australian Athletics chief executive Simon Hollingsworth said this event – and the World Para Athletics Championships starting in India later this month – promise to showcase Australia’s current podium contenders as well as those that will be there in Brisbane in 2032.
“Both of the teams comprise seasoned champions as well as the next generation of athletes coming through,” Hollingsworth said, mentioning Paris medallists including Hull, Denny and high jumper Nicola Olyslagers who just won a Diamond League crown.
Jessica Hull remains among the leading contenders in middle-distance athletics events. Photograph: Michael Buholzer/AP
And then there is the magnetic draw of Gout.
“We’ve got this exciting crop of people, including, of course, Gout, who’s making his senior debut in the 200 metres,” Hollingsworth said.
“You look across the cohort and it’s exciting for what they’ll do right now in Tokyo, but also what that potential represents over the period leading into LA and then beyond.”
SBS has shown 10 athletics world championships going back to 2001, including the past three, while the two before those were only available on Foxtel via Eurosport. Channel Seven screened the Australian championships and major meets over summer.
The decision by Channel Nine – which will also show the 2028 and 2032 Olympics – to acquire the rights to the world championships in Tokyo underscores the high level of interest in the sport.
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“The state of Australian athletics has never been stronger with a suite of defending world champions and emerging superstars primed and ready to take on the very best from across the planet,” Nine’s director of sport, Brent Williams, said in June.
The full championships won’t be screened on Nine’s main channel given the presence of ratings heavy-hitters such as The Block and the footy finals, but the event will be available on 9Now in the latest effort to drive audiences to the streaming platform.
Morning sessions in Tokyo begin at 9am on Australia’s east coast, while evening sessions – where most medals are won or lost – will begin around 7.30pm most days.
Nine’s deal with World Athletics means SBS will have a well-resourced challenger for viewers, but the multicultural broadcaster has an ace up its sleeve. It has recruited McAvaney to lead coverage across their linear channels and SBS On Demand platform alongside former Olympian Tamsyn Manou (née Lewis).
Some will say Tokyo’s convenient timezone for Australian audiences – the Japanese capital is an hour behind Sydney and Melbourne – has been the main cause for the additional interest from local broadcasters.
Hollingsworth argues that the deals also mean the two rights-holders both view athletics as a powerful property for prime time.
“They’ve looked at what’s available and they’ve gone, ‘yes, this is something we think that people want to watch’, and that certainly backs up our experience over the summer,” he said, highlighting “really significant growth” in audiences on Channel Seven over summer.
The timing will enhance the exposure of this crop of athletes, who spend much of their year racing in Europe during the Australian dead of night. That promises better commercial opportunities, as well as fewer early mornings for family and friends hoping to tune in.
“It’s hard when we’re racing over in Europe and mum and dad have to get up at 4am to watch,” said Claudia Hollingsworth, the 800m national record holder already at age 20. “It’s so awesome, the time’s perfect.”
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