Gout Gout Runs 19.67 to Smash U20 200m World Record and Beat Bolt’s Best
Nobody at 18 has ever run 200 metres faster. And Usain Bolt tried.
Australian sprinter Gout Gout clocked 19.67 seconds at the Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney on April 12 — smashing the under-20 world record and becoming the first Australian to break the 20-second barrier in the event. Bolt’s fastest 200m as an 18-year-old was 19.93, run in 2004. Gout beat it by 0.26 seconds.
The previous U20 world record of 19.69 was set by American Erriyon Knighton in 2022. Gone now. The run came with a legal tailwind of 1.7 metres per second at Sydney Olympic Park and tops the global 200m rankings for 2026.
World Athletics must still ratify the time. That is a formality. What Gout Gout is, at 18, is not