A sprinting golden age arrives on seismic weekend for Australian athletics

April 12, 2026 — 7:43pm

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The national championships were supposed to be a showdown; they turned into a showcase.

Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy were supposed to go head-to-head; instead they went stride for stride, record for record. This isn’t a rivalry, it’s an era.

Gout is now the greatest junior of all time. His 19.67 seconds run on Sunday, when he became the first Australian ever to break 20s, gave him the record for the fastest man under the age of 20 the world has ever seen over 200 metres.

Australia had never had one person break 20; suddenly there were two. Not only did Gout become the first Australian to break 20 seconds in the 200m final, Aidan Murphy become the second. In the same race, Murphy ran 19.88s. And so an extra rivalry, or more importantly, an extra leg of a sprint relay team, also emerges.

Nine seconds one day, 19 the next. Three sprinters ran under 10 and 20 seconds in two days. Just one of those performances would make it a remarkable weekend, but four of them is incomprehensible.

The significance of what is happening now in Australian athletics cannot be overstated, and that is without getting to the middle distance runners.

We won’t........

© Brisbane Times