Gout, Kennedy schooled by teacher at Stawell Gift

Rising Australian sprinters Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy were upstaged by schoolteacher John Evans at the country's oldest and richest handicap footrace, the Stawell Gift, on Monday.

The race offers a prize of A$40 000 ($25 668) and is run every year on a 120-metre grass track with athletes handicapped according to ability and previous performances in sprints.

Schoolboy Gout, who clocked a wind-assisted 19.84 seconds to win the 200 at the national championships last week a few days after recording a 9.99 in the 100 also in an illegal wind, was knocked out by Evans in the semifinals.

Gout, 17, started 8.75 metres behind Evans and was unable to run the 28-year-old down on a damp course in the small Victorian gold rush town.

Kennedy, who won silver in the 60 at the world indoors last month, also failed to reach the final after being beaten by 17-year-old Dash Muir, who started 7.5 metres ahead of him in their semi.

Evans won the final in 11.94 seconds, while Paris Olympic 100 semifinalist Bree Rizzo became only the second athlete to win the women's Gift from scratch since it was introduced in 1989.

Kennedy, 21, ran a personal best 10 seconds flat in a heat on his way to winning the 100 title at the nationals and will next take on a world-class field including American Christian Coleman at the Diamond League in Xiamen, China at the weekend.

Gout will return to school for a new term before two races in Europe during his winter holiday ahead of his anticipated world championships debut in Tokyo in September.

The Stawell Gift has been run every Easter weekend since 1878 except for four years during World War Two and in 2020, when the Covid pandemic forced its cancellation.