on July 20th of 2003 a 16-year-old yain bolt took to the track in the men's 200 M against a worldclass field in the Pan-American Junior Championships in Bridgetown Barbados this was certainly a difficult race for Usain Bolt as most of the athletes around him were either 18 or 19 years old giving them a clear advantage against such a young Sprinter that was bold however on this day Usain was simply too strong for anyone else in this field with a finishing time of 20. 13 seconds bolt had just run the fastest time in history for a 16-year-old and this time would stand for an entire generation as the new world youth record which is the category of athletes under 18 years old this Mark also broke the previous u8 record by more than 2/10 of a second and in retrospect this was one of the early moments that ushered in the greatness that was Usain bold this was certainly a massive leap in World youth running and even more so given the fact that before bolts performance only three youth athletes had ever broken 20. 5 with his long loping and ever powerful stride bolt was quickly becoming a name that many in the track world were seeing as the next great one and fast forward just 5 years later and he officially took over the sport in recent years we have covered a healthy amount of upand cominging athletes that are doing some pretty amazing things given their age some of these names have changed the status quo in their respective crafts and others have even broken age group records that nobody saw coming however for the 2024 season there is one name that is rapidly growing in popularity and unlike anyone that I have ever seen in the past this athlete genuinely might just be the next Usain bold if we go back to March 19 18 of this season I uploaded a video about the new fastest teenager in the world at the time now I had no idea that this video was set to take off to over 3.
5 million views but given the circumstances and the speed of this one Sprinter I think that these views make perfect sense you see this guy here this is gout gout an up incoming athlete currently competing for Australia and for this 100 race he clocked a time of 10. 29 a time that still ranks him as the second fastest youth athlete in the world this season over the 100 this clip honestly went viral various times in 2024 because just look at what this young man accomplishes over the second half this kind of speed is very reminiscent of what a young yain bolt was able to do during his early seasons and just like an early Usain gout gout does seem poised to make a much bigger impact over the 200 M and given what he just did in this year's Queensland School championships there is a real chance that even more records could fall in the following Seasons this is goutgout doing something that has not been done for decades for this 200 met effort he was so far in front that it was practically just a time trial by himself and with one of the more dominant wins that you will ever see in this competition gout was completely anite of his own now for this 200 when we initially see him cross the finish line the clock reads 20. 45 seconds which would already be incredible for a 16-year-old and we can actually see gout celebrating and we can actually already see gout celebrating from seeing 20.
45 flash on the screen however just a few moments later this time was actually adjusted to 20. 2 n and the reason that this is so remarkable is because this is the Australian Youth and Junior record it's a new State open record it now ranks gout as the fourth fastest Australian Sprinter in history over the 200 and it also makes gout the fourth fastest youth athlete in the entire history of men sprinting and again this man is only 16 years old the moment the gun went off for this 200 gout had already began rapidly closing in on his competitors but notice what happens the moment he gets to the halfway point he just starts pulling away more and more and there was literally no chance that anyone in this field could catch him running a 2029 second 200 met Dash even as a junior athlete would already rank you in the top 30 all time but wout just managed to do as a youth athlete places him fourth in the history of this event now only falling behind purol Boon from Thailand Usain Bolt from Jamaica and Arion knon from the United States who ran a 19. 8 4 back in the 2021 us trials this clip once again has people foaming at the mouth at just how much faster gout actually is than his fellow teenage Rivals and this video also flooded my Instagram and my emails with requests to cover this one race and you know what this excitement is completely and 100% warranted because for the past few years gouts improvements in the 100 and 200 have been stag in as he has dropped his 200 Time by almost 2 and 1/2 seconds since 2021 but what I really think makes gout such a scary Prospect in the world of sprinting is the amount of growth that he still clearly has and the similarities between him and Usain Bolt is just uncanny back in 2003 Bolt running was clearly the result of natural talent and an ability to focus when it truly mattered but notice his stride and his body position he was still clearly growing into his own running and he still had many years of muscle growth and form development to turn him into the runner that he ultimately became and this is really the big source of possibility that as people ready to call gout gout the next Usain bold even though he already runs like a gazelle and runs with more smoothness than almost any other teenager in the world it is still obvious that he has much more maturing and growing to do over the next couple of Seasons so by the time that he turns 1920 or 21 the world should be scared at what this young man could achieve for this 2024 season gouts time of 20.
2 n places him well into the world number one position as the fastest youth runner in the world over the 200 but even when he competed against the world's best at this year's World Junior Championships in Peru he still managed to put forth quite a show over the half-lap distance in this 200 meter finals in the world junior Champs gout was up against a very strong field that consisted of the recent 100 meter World Junior Champion Baya waza from South Africa this 200 final was set to be a massive challenge for gout who is still finding his stride during these big moments but when the 200 final ultimately arrived he put together one of the best efforts that I have ever seen from this athlete in the 200 right from the gun wasasa from South Africa dropped gout almost immediately over the opening 100 and by the halfway point gout was in third to last with vaza seemingly gone by this opening half gout certainly had a lot of work to do if he wanted the gold medal in this year's World Junior Championships and again remember the most of the athletes here are either 18 or 19 years old giving them a clear advantage over the 16-year-old gout and even though gout was about 5 to 6 M behind Waz at this point he still managed to do this well and now gout gout starting to roll starting to roll this performance here is exactly why goutgout is such a huge Prospect in the 200 M and Beyond no matter what the deficit and no matter what the situation this man's top speed and top speed maintenance is already off the charts for a junior Sprinter let alone a youth Sprinter and this kind of speed maintenance abilities really does allow him to catch almost anyone that he's competing against one very interesting aspect of 200 M running that can often dictate an athletes abilities is their 100 m split intervals in the past we have seen the greatest athletes ever in this event drop some crazy final 100s such as Johan Blake's epic 9. 12 second half back from 2011 or Usain Bolt dropping a 9. 27 second half for his world record in 2009 I was super curious if any of this kind of tracking had ever been done with gout gout because his second halfs really do look amazing and while World Athletics did keep track of this year's World Junior Championships along with the official timekeeper Seiko there were sadly no splits from the opening Heats there were no splits from the semis and again there were no splits listed for the finals just the outright results along with many other factors such as the wind outside of electronic timing equipment there is really no reliable way to accurately measure what his final 100 met effort looked like but I would venture to guess that was well under 10 seconds for a second half potentially closing in on 9.
