Talented teens Gout and Beacroft break national records | Australian Junior Athletics Championships Day Three

Two national records tumbled on Day Three of the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Australian Junior Athletics Championships as Ipswich sprint sensation Gout Gout becomes Australia’s fastest ever boy over 200m and New South Wales’ Isaac Beacroft shatters a 25-year racewalking record.

15-year-old Gout Gout etched his name into the history books once again when lowering the Australian Under 18 200m by 0.03-seconds in the Final at Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre this afternoon.

Gout stopped the clock at 20.87-seconds (-0.1), defeating his competitors by almost half a second to win the title and punch his seventh qualifying time for the Commonwealth Youth Games over the distance. In setting the new record, Gout overtakes Australian athletics legend Darren Clarke, Paul Greene and Zane Branco who have all recorded 20.90 over a 41-year period.

“It means a lot because I’ve been training so much for this. I was really nervous. The gun went, and I was good and I just kept pushing.” Gout said.

The excitement around the talented teen is easily justified. With a series of Australian Under 16 records in late 2022, the Australian with South Sudanese heritage quickly flew onto the radars of athletics fans around the country.

“It’s like you can’t feel any ground contact, it feels like you are floating. This season has been mind blowing for me. Last year I came fourth and sixth at Nationals, and then I came out at All Schools and won. I was really motivated because I took last year personally, it always feels better when you are winning,” Gout said.

“Di [Diane Sheppard] is the best coach ever, I love her, and my training group are the best supporters ever – I couldn’t get here without them.”

Also on the track, Isaac Beacroft from New South Wales continued his rapid trajectory when shattering the 25-year-old Australian Under 18 5000m Race Walk record, previously held by Troy Sundstrom.

Crossing the line in 19:51.81, Beacroft slashed over 15-seconds off the previous record, surprising himself in the process.

“I haven’t done a 5k in three and a half years or something, but I did a training walk the other day at Parkrun and did 20:20 so I felt pretty good. I completely threw out the race tactics because we went through the first kilometre in 4:02 or something, which is a bit back on pace. I just trusted myself.”

The prodigious race walker who broke the 3000m race walking record at the 2022 Chemist Warehouse Australian All Schools Championships last year juggles his love of walking with a burgeoning AFL career.

“When everything is good; on Monday I do a walk session on the track, Tuesday I have two hours with the GWS Giants Academy, Wednesday a running set, Thursday more AFL, Friday a walks session, Saturday either rest of something hard, and then Sunday is a long run.”

The youngest member of the Australian team at the World Under 20 Championships last year, Delta Amidzovski (NSW) has long been known as one of the most versatile athletes in the junior ranks, confirming that today when demonstrating scorching form to clinch gold in the Under 18 Long Jump.

Competing in an age group above her own, the 16-year-old claimed the crown with a 6.21m (-0.7) leap, narrowly missing her lifetime best by just 4cm when defeating New South Wales’ Grace Krause. Krause found the silver lining with a 6.16cm (+1.0) jump, adding a whopping 35cm to her previous personal best. Krause also won the Under 18 200m Final with a 23.96 (+0.4) run - her second sub-24 performance of the day after 23.67 (+1.2) in the Heats.

Yet to specialise, Amidzovski will now turn her attention to the Under 18 100m Hurdles tomorrow, with the teenager crediting her international experience for being able to rise to the occasion:

“It’s helped me a lot with the pressure, knowing how to control my emotions – taking it jump by jump or race by race and focusing on myself rather than what everyone else is doing,” Amidzovski said.

New South Wales scored the trifecta in the Under 18 Women’s 800m, as Fleur Cooper, Ella Penman and Tayissa Buchanan filled the podium. The fastest of the three, Cooper punched in her third Commonwealth Games Youth qualifier when crossing the line first in 2:06.27, while Penman’s silver saw her meet the qualifying standard for the first time.

Coffs Harbour training partners Daniel Williams and Jade Kitching went 1-2 in the Men’s Under 18 800m final, impressing as both athletes contested age groups more experienced than their own.

Chelsy Wayne (NSW) stamped her authority on the Women’s Under 18 Discus when defeating the Under 16 champion from Queensland Riley-Jay Henry-Purcell. Wayne took two attempts to warm up before unleashing a 51.02m best, just shy of a metre ahead of the youngster who claimed silver with 50.24m. Her third best throw of all time, Wayne’s throw strengthens her contention for the Commonwealth Youth Games, with the performance marking her 11th qualifier for the team bound for Trinidad and Tobago.

George Wells (NSW) is on a winning streak like no other before him in the junior ranks of discus. With a monstrous throw of 58.68m, Wells collected his fourth Junior Championships medal in the discipline and punched in his first Commonwealth Youth Games qualifying standard on his way to defeating Victorian Mackenzie Leith.

With no opportunity to contest for the Under 15 in 2020 due to the pandemic, Wells now owns titles in every other Junior age group title from Under 14 - Under 18 and becomes the first male in Australian athletics history to do so.

New South Wales’ Telaya Blacksmith took gold in the Women’s Under 17 Ambulant 200m race, crossing the line in 26.13 (+1.9) for a BASELINE score of 95.17. Although slow out of the blocks, the 15-year-old T20 athlete impressed around the bend as she took a 30m lead ahead of her rivals. Blacksmith’s time today positions her as well on track as she pursues a career as a Paralympic sprinter, with her time today just over a second behind the world record held by Australian Lisa Llorens from 2000. In second place was Kiera Post (SA, T37) who clocked 30.45 for a score of 89.03, while Sybella Warton (T37, NSW), came in just behind in 31.14 for a BASELINE score of 87.05.

Back for redemption after claiming silver in the Under 16 3000m, Bart Leeton stormed down the straight in the second race of the 1500m timed finals to win gold. Stopping the clock at 3:58.61, Leeton finished more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field in the faster of the two races, leaving Avery McDermid (Vic) and Liam O’Neill (QLD) the minor medals.

Maddison King (VIC) was the fastest of all the Under 16 athletes in the Women’s 1500m but it was a three-way duel to the finish line as Queensland’s Sienna Bush and Victoria’s Lucy Jones challenged the rising star for the top spot. King crossed the line in 4:29.28 ahead of Bush and Jones, with the Queenslander dipping over the line just 0.47-seconds before her rival in 4:29.75 - backing up her 3000m gold on Day Two.

The final event of the evening saw the New South Wales Men's 4x100m relay team come painfully close to the national record, with John McDonald, Dylan Hall, Sadheel Kumar and Cody Hasler closing the night with a 41.08 run around the track. Less than 0.2 from the record, the gold medal winners defeated Team New Zealand (41.46) and South Australia's team of Jean Marie, James Withnall, Gman Paye and Andrew Maenda (41.86).

The final day of the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Australian Junior Athletics Championships begins tomorrow at 8.15am AEST, with the broadcast commencing on 7plus at 9.45am AEST.

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 15/4/2022