Beyond Gout Gout: The other young sprint stars

Gout Gout is considered one of the hottest names in athletics across the globe right now but he’s just one Australian prospect on a rapidly growing list, giving the nation belief it can be a major contender in some of the fastest races in the world.

Several coaches and experts believe the country is on the precipice of its greatest era in track sprinting, with a home Olympics in 2032 on the horizon.

As South-East Queensland prepares to host its own Games, it has emerged as a factory for sprint stars, with youngsters including Lachlan Kennedy, Thewbelle Philp, Amaya Mearns and Calab Law also setting a lightning pace.

Over the next nine days, the sprinters will all compete at the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth.

They’ll go head-to-head, challenge each other and push harder and faster towards the finish line, hunting new records, personal bests and more opportunities to wear the green and gold at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

“I think we’re already in the golden era of Australian sprinting,” 60-metre men’s world silver medallist Lachlan Kennedy said.

“I can’t see any of us slowing down, especially if the standard keeps getting raised.

“You want to beat everyone you go up against even if they’re your friend, it’s an individual sport at the end of the day, but we’re competitors.

“I don’t want to lose to anyone in any race I’m in and I don’t think I’ll lose in any race I’m in … so we just all push each other.

“Competition is the best thing for a sport like this … it improves our relay team a lot as well; it just breeds a good culture of competitiveness and intensity and excitement.”

The sprinters all have different journeys, different stories, but share the same motivation — to compete for Australia in Brisbane in seven years, just kilometres from where they train each and every day.

Get to know some of our future sprint stars.

Thewbelle Philp

What Thewbelle Philp might lack in height, she certainly doesn’t lack in speed — coach Leanne Hines-Smith believes the 16-year-old has the capability to be the fastest woman in Australia.

The year 12 Palm Beach Currumbin High School student set a blistering pace at last year’s Australian All Schools Championships in Brisbane, with the third fastest 100 metres under-18 time, 11.38, in Australian history.

Now Philp and her coach are eyeing off Raelene Boyle’s record of 11.20 — set in Mexico in 1968.

“I got into athletics when I was 10, so I used to do swimming and tried team sports like touch when I was growing up but mainly I leant towards running,” Philp said.

“In primary school on sports days I was winning the races and my dad was like, ‘well, you’re going pretty good, Belle, don’t you want to try some training?'”

That’s when Philp, nicknamed ‘Chewy’, met her coach and together they’ve only blossomed from there.

“My reaction time, my starts as well, that’s my strength,” the teenager said.

“I want to be able to make Brisbane Olympics in 2032, so hopefully my process to getting there is pretty good.”

This week, at the Nationals in Perth, she will compete in the 100 metres and 200 metres Under 18 and Under 20 events, as well as the 4×100 metres relay.

Philp measures in at 1.57 metres tall, but Hines-Smith is quick to remind her she’s actually taller than some of the fastest and most successful female sprinters in the world: Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser Price and American Sha-Carri Richardson.

“I don’t believe height’s a thing. Thewbelle’s fiercely competitive. She’s got some great attributes genetically and she’s hungry and she loves the sport,” Hines-Smith said.

“I think she’s got such capability and the exciting part is she’s young, definitely not overtrained. Her strength is she’s still got more speed to develop.”

Amaya Mearns

A fierce but friendly rival of Philp, Amaya Mearns is also hunting one of Raelene Boyle’s long-standing national records.

The 17-year-old from St Peters Western Lutheran College believes she will break the 22.74 time Boyle set in the under-18 and under-20 200-metres 56 years ago.

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Her personal best is 23.15, set in December 2024.

Mearns, who started her junior athletics career as a long distance runner, said she enjoys having someone to chase out of the blocks.

“I love having a rival … as much as I don’t like coming second, I think that it really helps me helps me run faster and get better,” she said.

“My favourite event is the 200 and my best event is the 200.

“I’m a little bit taller than most of my competition, so it takes me a little bit longer to get my stride up but after about 150 metres is where my stride really opens up.”

Mearns, who is a keen boxer when she’s not at the track, said she’s determined to compete at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

“I think I was national champ at [the time of the announcement],” she said.

“When we saw it on the TV, my mum took a photo of me and she said ‘that would be you one day’ and me and my best friend just looked at each other and went, ‘yeah, we’ll go to that’.

“I think it’s something that I could achieve, but obviously it’s a long way away.”

Lachlan Kennedy

Lachlan Kennedy is what many in the athletics world would consider a “latecomer”, yet he’s still only 21.

Kennedy, who just last month won Australia’s first medal in the 60 metres at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, grew up a keen rugby union player before making the switch to sprinting.

“I wasn’t super skilled or good at footy, I was a definite liability on defence, but I would get the ball in my hands and I’ll just try and run around people,” he said.

In his senior years at St Joseph’s Gregory Terrace in Brisbane, he said it was his rugby union coach who actually suggested he take up track and field.

He has been training as a sprinter for about four years.

“I think I’m very lucky in that regard that I’ve had such a good start [to the sport],” he said.

“I’ve still got so much more I can improve on, so much more strength to be gained. I’ve only scratched the surface of what I’m capable of.

“The biggest step for me was definitely involving gym because I always just lifted just for footy. Then once I left school and started lifting with the more track focus, that was the where I saw the biggest jump and improvement.”

Kennedy, who studies engineering and commerce at the University of Queensland, believes it will only be a matter of time as to when he breaks the 10-second barrier in the 100 metres.

His personal best is 10.03, achieved in Perth just last month.

Kennedy is confident Patrick Johnson’s 2003 Australian record of 9.93 won’t be safe for much longer.

“It will be broken. Hopefully in Perth, if not definitely by the end of the year,” he said.

“I don’t want to stop at the fastest man in Australia. I want to obviously keep on going and be one of the top threats in the world.

“Track and field in Australia alone has blown up massively.

“So it’s feasible to really put everything I have into this sport. With the Olympics being in Brisbane in 2032, it’s just extra motivation.”

Calab Law

Calab Law is the current national champion in the 200 metres, a world under-20s bronze medallist, represented Australia at the Paris Olympics — and is only still 21.

He’s also Lachlan Kennedy’s training partner.

“I got into running about when I was 10 years old,” he said.

“My mum was a really big fan of Cathy Freeman and basically that’s how I got started, because I was watching Cathy as a kid.

“My mum always said I was going to be quick because I have a twin brother and even when we started walking, I was always beating him.”

The 21-year-old trains out of Mayne Harriers Athletics Club alongside Kennedy and Mearns.

“I think I’m a pretty relaxed runner … that’s how I describe myself,” he said.

“Who wouldn’t want to have the fastest man in Australia over like the 100 and 200 right now, like Lachie, to train with?”

Coach Andrew Iselin said Law is capable of achieving anything he puts his mind to.

“He’s such a cruisy guy. He’s so relaxed,” Iselin said.

“He actually just makes the whole sort of training experience better for everyone because he brings that aura about him.”

Law will run in the 100 and 200 metres at the nationals in Perth next week.