Kennedy edges Gout in 200m thriller in Melbourne
Lachlan Kennedy has revelled in the role of party pooper, upstaging Gout Gout’s hugely-anticipated senior sprint debut and taking down the schoolboy sensation in the 200 metre race at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.
Nine days after winning silver in the 60-metre dash at the world indoors in China, the 21-year-old Kennedy did the 100-200-metre double at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd of 10,000.
Many of them were there primarily to see 17-year-old Gout run against men for the first time.
But it was fellow Queenslander Kennedy who stole the show, winning the 200 metres in a huge personal best of 20.26 seconds. A fast-finishing Gout was second across the line in 20.30.
“I just wanted to give everyone a good race,” said Kennedy.
“It wouldn’t be fun if he just destroyed everyone.
“I’m sorry if I did spoil it a little bit, but what a great race.
“You can’t be upset about watching something like that.”
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The next instalment of the burgeoning Kennedy-Gout friendly rivalry will come at the Australian championships in Perth in mid-April.
So far, Gout’s history-making feats – which include breaking the 56-year-old Australian 200-metre record late last year – have come against fellow junior athletes.
He learnt plenty from his first big outing on the senior stage.
“That’s what you live for – this environment, the hype, the people, the expectation, the pressure,” he said.
“This is sport right. This is what I go to training every day for.”
The Peter Norman Memorial 200 metres was the closing event of the biggest single night of athletics on Australian soil in years and it lived up to the hype.
The runners were held in the blocks for much longer than usual, which only added to the anticipation.
“The experience is second to none,” said Gout.
“This is something you can only get from a big meet, a Continental Gold meet, world championships and Olympics.
“Getting more runs like this will be great for me.
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“The silence was definitely crazy, the silence was loud – that’s what they say.”
A couple of hours earlier, Kennedy won the 100 metres in 10.17 into a slight headwind.
Reigning national champion Sebastian Sultana came home strongly for second in 10.29, just ahead of Rohan Browning (10.30).
Another star teenage member of Australian track and field’s Generation Next, Cameron Myers, won the John Landy 1500 metres in grand style.
The 18-year-old Myers took up the running with 700 metres to go and stormed away to win in three minutes 34.98 seconds ahead of Adam Spencer in 3:35.52.
Fifteen-year-old New Zealander Sam Ruthe, who earlier this month became the youngest person to run a sub-four-minute mile, was seventh.
Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori caused a big boilover in the men’s 400 metres by holding off his countryman and reigning Olympic 200-metre champ Letsile Tebogo to win in 45.14.
Tebogo was second in 45.26, with Cooper Sherman the first Australian across the line in fourth (45.74).
Ndori and Tebogo were both members of the Botswana team that claimed 4×400-metre silver at the Paris Olympics.
Teen sensation Claudia Hollingsworth timed her run to perfection to win a high-quality women’s 1500 metres in 4:06.00.
Fellow Australians Sarah Billings and three-time Olympian Linden Hall filled the minor placings.
National 100m record holder Torrie Lewis was never in contention in the women’s 200 metres, finishing fifth in a race won by fellow Australian Kristie Edwards in 23.18.
Full-time physiotherapist Seth O’Donnell made all the running in the men’s 5000 metres, only to be mowed down by world indoors bronze medallist Ky Robinson.
The 23-year-old Robinson took the lead with 600 metres to run and powered away to win in a personal best of 13:13.17.
Former world champ Eleanor Patterson won the women’s high jump with a best clearance of 1.94 metres and Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny was a dominant winner of the men’s discus (68.17 metres).
