The rapid rise of sprint sensation Gout Gout has hit new speeds in Perth with the teenager shattering the 10-second barrier twice in one day at the 2025 Australian Athletics Championships, scorching the track alongside Paralympic stars Vanessa Low and Reece Langdon who set world records on a historic day.
Only twice in history had an Australian man broken 10-seconds over 100m, but the 17-year-old Gout (QLD, Diane Sheppard) achieved that feat twice in one day with back-to-back windy 9.99-second performances to join Australian record holder Patrick Johnson and Rohan Browning in esteemed company.
Exploding to a 9.99 (+3.5) showing in the heats before returning to clock 9.99 (+2.6) in the Under 20 Men’s 100m Final, Gout’s meteoric rise could only gain momentum at the Australian Athletics Championships as he nailed yet another milestone in his blossoming career.
“This definitely boosts my confidence levels. Sub-10 is what every sprinter hopes for and to get it so early this year is definitely great. It also boosts my confidence for the main event for me, like the 200m,” Gout said.
Swamped by screaming fans after each of his races, Gout was buoyed by the support:
“It’s definitely great. I feel like this is what Australia needs. This is what we wake up for in the morning for, what we train for. I couldn’t ask for anything better, and just the crowds and everyone getting around it is definitely great.”
History was also rewritten by Paralympic champion Vanessa Low (ACT, Scott Reardon, T61) and bronze medallist Reece Langdon (VIC, Tim O’Shaughnessy, T38) who crushed world records in the long jump and 1500m respectively.
Racing in the able bodied Men’s 1500m Heats, Langdon defied illness to produce the run of his life when clocking 3:46.83 to take down Paralympic powerhouse Nate Reich’s (Canada) T38 world record of 3:47.89 – booking his ticket to the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships to be held in New Delhi, India.
“To get that world record, I’ve been fighting for so long to get that,” Langdon said.
“I’ve been a little crook the last couple of days. Up until about two hours before, I thought I might scratch the race just because I was feeling very crook. I was like no, my partner has come across. I’ve got to actually toe the line and see what I can do. And that was break a world record.”
Low piled the centimetres onto her own T61 world record when flying to a distance of 5.71m (+1.3) in the opening round, bettering her previous mark of 5.45m set when winning Paralympic gold, notching up yet another achievement in her trailblazing career.
“It feels great to get my mojo back after Paris. I think it was really important just to trust the process. I have surrounded myself with the most amazing team, my husband and coach, my strength and conditioning coach and my physio. We were all kind of pulling in the same direction and they all believed in me, so I knew it was there,” Low said.
“This is only a small bit of our big milestone. We want to hit the six-metre mark and we’ve been working behind the scenes really hard on turning all these little rocks over just to find the last one percenters. We feel like it’s possible. Maybe not this year, but definitely next year.”
By competing at the Australian Athletics Championships after claiming Paralympic gold, Low too was selected for the World Para Athletics Championships, while Niamh Mac Alasdair (WA, Danny Kevan, T37) made herself eligible for selection for the New Delhi championships, recording her second qualifying standard with a 4.11 (+1.5) jump. Experienced campaigner Sarah Walsh (NSW, Matt Beckenham, T64) also notched another qualifying standard in the long jump, leaping to 5.12m (+2.1) to place sixth.
Paralympic champion James Turner (ACT, Iryna Dvoskina, T36) laid down a solid marker of his own with a run of 52.65-seconds in the Men’s Para 400m after a thrilling battle with T38 competitor Ullrich Muller (QLD, Ian Thompson) who finished in a time of 52.77 – a new Australian Under 20 record in his class.
Showing scorching form all season, Turner also cemented his place on the Australian Team for the World Para Athletics Championships in September alongside Low, Langdon and Michael Roeger (ACT, Philo Saunders, T46) who raced alongside Langdon in the 1500m.
The para athletics records rolled on in the 400m, with Akeesha Snowden (SA, Lynn Larsen, T37) storming to an Oceania record of 1:06.21, breaking a 22-year-old record set by seven-time Paralympic medallist Lisa McIntosh in 2003. Snowden placed fourth in the multi-class event, with Rhiannon Clarke (WA, Danny Kevan, T38) racing to gold in 1:03.21.
Earlier in the day, the Olympic duo of Declan Tingay (WA, Brent Vallance) and Rhydian Cowley (VIC, Brent Vallance) battled it out over 25 laps in the Men’s 10,000m Race Walk, with Tingay injecting a final lap surge to take the win in 39:06.91 to Cowley’s 39:09.69, while rising star Isaac Beacroft (NSW, David Beacroft) was crowned the Under 20 champion and was the third man across the line in the combined event in 39:54.30.
The first round of the Men’s 1500m saw Cameron Myers (ACT, Dick Telford) float his way to a slick 3:38.20 while reigning champion Adam Spencer (VIC, Mick Byrne) also impressed. Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull (NSW, Simon Hull) and Georgia Griffith (VIC, Nic Bideau) led the Women’s 1500m Heats in stylish fashion, giving little away ahead of Saturday’s final.
Day One of the combined events belonged to Tori West (QLD, Eric Brown & Sam Leslie) who leads the Heptathlon with a score of 3616 after four events, with a personal best performances in the 100m Hurdles (13.59), while Emelia Surch (QLD, Glynis Nunn) sits in second position with a score of 3571, just 54 points ahead of fourth place getter at the World Athletics Under 20 Championships, Mia Scerri (VIC, Ralph Newton & Rob Stevens).
Meanwhile, the Women’s Triple Jump Qualification brought out the best of Desleigh Owusu (NSW, Andrew Murphy) who leapt to a new personal best of 13.74m (0.0) to lead the qualifiers by 67cm.
The Australian Athletics Championships is the finale of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series and is also supported by the Western Australian Government through Tourism WA, as well as VenuesWest and Athletics West.
Full results from today can be found HERE.
By Lachlan Moorhouse and Sascha Ryner, Australian Athletics
Posted 10/5/2025
