After an excellent indoor season and an eventful Australian Championships, the coming months are full of promise. Kathryn Merry is ready to dive into what’s next.
I’ll happily admit that like most athletics fans, I’m pretty greedy. The World Indoor Championships gave us quite a feast in March, but I’m already hungry for more, so I’m really thankful that the outdoor season is about to get fully up and running.
There is a different feeling about this summer ahead. For some, there are big, obvious targets in the form of the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, but there is also a sense of freedom for a number of big names who can experiment a bit more or pursue goals that might otherwise be world championship or Olympic ambitions.
The sport is in a good place at the moment, but it’s also in a state of flux, and we seem to have this really nice mix of established, famous record holders who are compelling to watch alongside the youngsters, and that’s really cool.
One of those emerging talents has wasted little time making headlines. The Australian Championship has proven to be full of incidents, but the world is watching Gout Gout’s every move as he strives to break the 20-second barrier through legal wind.
Some were quick, and quite rightly so, to question this, pointing to the fact that a number of other athletes also had personal bests in the same race; a trend like that will always raise suspicions, but it’s not like we didn’t know Gout could run really fast. We’ve known for several years what an exceptional talent he is.
I also think this may be a rare case of completely perfect conditions for the 200m. Some people either don’t understand or don’t want to accept that the wind can sometimes operate at 200 meters. It doesn’t happen often, but if the breeze is blowing at the right diagonal angle, it helps you in the second half of the bend and boosts the straight line. Could this be exactly what happened here?
As far as we know, there is only one wind gauge directly on the house, and it measured 1.7 in near-perfect, legal conditions. Apparently it’s a very new track at that stadium in Sydney, which also helps, as does the spike technology.
I’m not questioning the timing because I think Gout is capable of it, but the element of controversy surrounding the introduction actually helps because it just builds interest in what he does next and how he reacts. Now everyone is wondering if he (and others who put their best foot forward in the race) can back it up, and it’s a great position for the sport. Organizers of the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava must be rubbing their hands together considering the 18-year-old will face Noah Lyles, the reigning Olympic over 150m champion in June. Oslo.
Of course, you can’t mention gout without mentioning Usain Bolt in the same sentence, and it’s a surprising statistic that an Australian is faster than a Jamaican at the same age, but times have changed. It’s also only human nature to wonder if that fabled world 200m record (19.19) might soon be in jeopardy.
I think having that level of expectation around you must be a heavy weight, but I’m not entirely sure that gout would buckle under the strain or think too much about it. This isn’t on the same scale, but I remember when I broke through as a teenager, I was quickly labeled as “the next Katie Cook”. I embraced it. It should be taken as a compliment. I don’t remember it bothering me. I think it can actually have more of an impact on the team around you and the people closest to you.
When you’re that young, you honestly think you have all the time in the world, so you don’t really see it as pressure. You can’t see the tip of your nose. Are you thinking? “I have 15 more years in this sport.” It’s very exciting. You’d rather be talked about as the next big thing than not at all.
What else would I like to see more of this coming summer? That wish list doesn’t change much from year to year. I want to see more contests and I want them to be more accessible. I want them to be easy to find, easy to follow, and easy to view.
I want to see good competitions and we will get them. The London Diamond League match already looks like it’s going to be inevitable, for example, and I gather that tickets are already in the 40,000 range.
I would also like to see a little more compassion for athletes. One thing that bothers me about Gut is the amount of racist comments that are thrown at him when he does something special, or the claims that because his parents are from South Sudan, then he’s not Australian.
Can we please just try to enjoy what these amazing people are doing? Enjoy the characters, enjoy the new names coming. Until proven otherwise, I like to enjoy what I see as much as possible. And I would like the general public to understand that no one wants an athlete to perform better than the athlete himself. I think people forget that sometimes if something doesn’t go according to plan or someone gets hurt again, it wasn’t intentional. No one plans to get hurt, and don’t forget that these people are people too.
Which I would like to see less of. That one is easy. Can West Ham stop digging in their heels and making life difficult for the 2029 World Cup in London by refusing to leave the stadium temporarily for the event? I think we’ll be reminded at the Diamond League meeting in July just how incredible the potential is, so I can’t believe a solution won’t be possible before the bid is submitted.
Let’s have more good, healthy debate and celebrate the good things, because I think there will be a lot to celebrate in the summer.
