Susan Egelstaff: The wait is over, the next Usain Bolt has arrived

Each and every sport needs one thing above all else to flourish, and that’s superstars. Or, at the very least, one superstar.

It’s no coincidence that the popularity of any sport correlates directly with the superstardom, or not, of its athletes.

And this single factor is, in large part, exactly why track and field has struggled so much in recent years.

Athletics has, traditionally, produced athletes who have transcended their sport.

From Seb Coe and Steve Ovett in the 1980s to Michael Johnson and Cathy Freeman in the 1990s and early 2000s to, most recently, the greatest superstar of them all, Usain Bolt.

The Jamaican became not only the biggest name in athletics, but arguably the biggest name in global sport.

Bolt had the full package; lightening quick times on the track, a sackful of World and Olympic titles and, perhaps most importantly, a personality and charisma that drew people in.

But since Bolt’s retirement from athletics in 2017, track and field has had a problem. A huge problem.

It’s struggled desperately to produce an athlete to take up Bolt’s mantle of the superstar of the sport.

But, finally, the wait may be over.

A sprinting sensation, who appears to be just as talented, if not even more talented than Bolt, has emerged.

And this may be what saves athletics from its current dip in popularity.

Gout Gout is just 16 years old, and to call him a sprinting prodigy is likely understating it quite considerably.

Gout is a phenomenon.

The teenager from Australia has been on the radar of athletics aficionados for a few years but it’s only this month in which Gout has hit the mainstream.

He is, to put it mildly, fast. Very fast.

Just over a week ago, he lined up for his 100m heat at theAll-Schools Athletics Championships in Queensland, Australia. Most people expected him to do well. But not this well.

Gout crossed the line in 10.04 seconds.

He had a slight tailwind but still, the fact it’s the fastest-ever time run by anyone of his age, the fourth-fastest by any runner under 18 years old and a time that only three British men have ever bettered, highlights just how unique an individual this teenager is.

Gout won the final, inside the legal wind-limit, in 10.17 seconds, which places him eighth on the under-18 all-time list.

This, however, was just the start of things. The following day, Gout returned to produce, arguably, an even more impressive performance, winning 200m gold in an Australian (senior) record of 20.04 seconds and placing himself second on the all-time list for the 200m for under-18s. Notably, Gout displaced a certain Bolt on this list.

Gout Gout is a prodigious talent (Image: Getty Images) The teenager is the son of Sudanese immigrants who moved to Australia two years before Gout was born. He grew up in Queensland and it was as a 13-year-old at school that his sprinting talent was first identified.

His progress has been rapid, with a particularly notable performance of this year being his silver medal in the 200m at the World U20 Championships.

One is always something of a hostage to fortune when predicting “the next big thing”.

For every sporting prodigy who’s been pinpointed as a future champion, there’s anther twenty, maybe even more, who have shown talent as young athletes only to fade into the ether as they become senior athletes.

And there’s even more who are touted as future champions but become nothing more than just decent professionals.

Gout may, of course, end up falling into one of these two categories.

But something tells me he won’t.

I have a feeling, and it’s a feeling that’s shared by many within the athletics world, that this young Aussie could well be the real deal.

There is, of course, the chance that he could become an excellent, even a world-class sprinter, yet still not quite manage to become the next Usain Bolt.

But, for the sake of the future of athletics, let’s hope he can convert this potential into becoming a real sporting great.

Even Bolt himself is singing Gout’s praises.

The Aussie, says the Jamaican, reminds him of himself in his younger days, and certainly the pair’s running styles, as well as their dominance in their own age-group, are not dissimilar.

“He looks like a young me,” commented Bolt about Gout on social media.

Usain Bolt has admitted that Gout Gout reminds him of himself (Image: Getty Images) Such predictions that Gout is a superstar in the making are, of course, a heavy weight for any teenager to carry upon their shoulders.

Even those most oblivious to external expectations would surely feel at least a degree of pressure in being labelled the next Usain Bolt.

But if Gout can both handle this pressure, and continue his progress, we will, I’m sure, witness over the decade-or-so, the emergence of someone who will become a true track and field great.

Certainly, Gout could not have timed his career any better.

He’s targeting qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where, by then, he will be 17 and the 2028 Olympics in LA will surely be on his radar too.

But it’s the 2032 Olympic Games, which will take place in Gout’s home city of Brisbane, that will likely be etched in his calendar already.

Only time will tell if Gout can live up to these outlandish, and perhaps unfair, predictions that are being made about him.

If he can, he could be the person who puts track and field back on the map.