The huge sound heard by Australians in the early hours of Wednesday, June 17, may be that of an alien spacecraft. A sudden and unexpected blast of wind then? More plausible, but no, this is probably not either, or a sign of any other natural phenomenon.
Rather, it was a collective sigh of relief as Gout Gout crossed the line in third place in the 150m at the Golden Spike Continental Tour in Ostrava, two steps behind Gout behind Noah Lyles. A performance that should be remembered and largely erased from our memories, a performance that we will never forget in the 200 meters at the Oslo Diamond League meeting.
Gout ran 14.96, and Lyles’ “world’s best” was 14.67. Splitting the two was South African Sensipho Dembele with 14.78. Three meters behind Noah Lyles? Yes, we’ll take that. Reassurance after Gout’s debut at Europe 2026 in Oslo has him eight meters behind Tebogo’s Olympic champion Letseli with 20.60 to Tebogo’s 19.84.
Oof! The baby was fine after that. It may be a measure of how far Australians are getting ahead of themselves that 20.60 for an 18-year-old – even one clearly capable of much better results – could be read as a disaster, but there it is. Professional athletes these days tend to take learnings rather than disasters, but a 20.60 points behind the under-20 world record of 19.67 at the Australian Championships, a previous world best, is too much of a disciplinary lesson.
No drama then. Or a one-act drama rather than a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. To Oregon for the main event of Gout’s 2026 World U20 Championship.
However, let’s talk about 150 meters for a little longer. The 150 is one of those distances that is classified as “uncommon”, along with the 300, 600, 1000 and 2000 (unfortunately, the 3000 is very common, especially as an alternative to the 5000m championship distance).
When the 150 is objected to, the commentator is obligated—contractually, apparently—to describe it as “rarely played.” Surprisingly, this is an understatement: if your steak is too rare, it will still be on the hoof in the pasture.
According to the World Athletics website’s report on Ostrava, Keeshan Thompson is the former World Player of the Year winner. Thompson, the silver medalist behind Lyles in the Paris Olympic 100, ran 14.92 seconds in Florida.
Without contradicting the “seldom run” descriptor or non-world record status for the distance, Lyles and Thompson’s running falls well short of the fastest recorded time for men over the distance. According to Wikipedia — not a definitive source, I’ll guarantee — the fastest recorded time came in Usain Bolt’s world record 19.19 for the 200 meters at the World Championships in Berlin 2009. Bolt flashed through the 150 and then in 14.44 seconds.
You’d think the next three behind Bolt on the all-time 200 list – Yohan Blake in 19.26, Lyles himself in 19.31 and Michael Johnson in 19.32 – were probably faster than Lyles in Ostrava. It should be noted that the Ostrava 150 is only half a bend and a full straight, while the 200 is a full bend and only a half straight.
Most of the times recorded by Wiki in the men’s top 25 were achieved on straight tracks at the City Games in Manchester and Boston. Bolt also tops this list, having achieved the fastest 14.35 seconds in Manchester in 2009.
Of course, starting from the blocks at the top of the turn isn’t exactly something runners practice regularly and never get out of the blocks – as Lyles pointed out in Ostrava.
“It’s very difficult to get used to running from 150 staggered starts,” Lyles said. “We do it virtually, but it’s unhindered.”
What Gout has learned from last week – in case he hasn’t been taken ill by trainer Dee Shepherd and his agent James Templeton already – is that whatever happens between now and 2032 in Brisbane, it’s not always an upward performance curve. This is also a good thing. Hopefully, supporters and the media can learn the same lesson.
Let’s leave the last word for the Ostrava 150 where it belongs, with Noah Lyles.
“Overall, I thought it was really good.”
It definitely was.
There was another standout Australian performance in an “extraordinary” event in Ostrava. Peter Paul broke the national and Oceania record by winning the 1000 meters in a time of 2:15.13. That took almost a full second off the previous mark of 2:16.09 set by Jeff Risley in 2014.
Paul had previously narrowly missed the mark when he clocked 2:16.29 in Melbourne last year.
As with the 150, the 1000 is a true rarity. But just as the 2000 and the two-mile race are among the standard plethora of opportunities for middle-distance runners, it is also run by most good runners at some point in their careers. Therefore, it is tested more stringently.
Paul’s official and unofficial predecessors (until 1983 the Australian record had to be recorded in Australia) were John Landy, Herb Elliott, Mike Hillardt and Grant Kramer. Cameron Myers (last year), Ryan Gregson, Simon Doyle and Graham Crouch had a good crack at it too. This covers most of our men’s middle distance history.
Now, Peter Paul is the fastest of them all.
