Online Reporter
Usain Bolt said Australian sprint sensation Gout Gout must surround himself with a strong support team in order to stay focused on his career and avoid the distractions that will come with track and field success.
Gout has earned comparisons with the Jamaican sprinting great and the 18-year-old is already being talked about in Australia as a potential gold medallist when Brisbane hosts the Olympics in 2032. He clocked 19.67 seconds to win the 200 metres title at the Australian Athletics Championships this month and followed it up with a victory in the under-20 100m event where he finished in 10.21 seconds. Bolt holds the world record in the 200m (19.19) and the 100m (9.58).
“At that young age, because I was there, you start getting put left and right and then you forget track and field,” eight-times Olympic gold medallist Bolt told CNN. “Hopefully he has the right set of people to guide him and keep him focused on track and fieldbecause the rest of the stuff will always be there.
“But if you mess up on track and field, then it all goes away.” Gout, the son of South Sudanese immigrants, is set to make his Diamond League debut in the 200m in Oslo on June 10, lining up in a strong field led by reigning Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.
Meanwhile, John Korir broke the Boston Marathon course record on Monday in a Kenyan sweep as compatriot Sharon Lokedi defended her title on a chilly day with a gusty tailwind.
Korir won the men’s race for the second straight year, smashing the 15-year-old course record in two hours, one minute and 52 seconds. The top three men all beat the previous record.
Lokedi, meanwhile, won the women’s race in two hours, 18 minutes and 51 seconds. She set the course record last year in 2:17:22.
In the men’s competition, a relaxed Korir surged past Ethiopia’s Milkesha Mengesha at the 20-mile mark to take control of the race. Korir ran alone for the final six miles, breaking the record set in 2011 by compatriot Geoffrey Mutai in 2:03:02.
Korir clocked his last mile of the race in four minutes, 26 seconds. Before crossing the finish line, he smiled broadly as he stuck out his tongue in a playful gesture.
“I knew I would defend my title, but I didn’t know I’d run that fast,” Korir told a press conference. With about five miles to go, Lokedi had Loice Chemnung, also of Kenya, clinging to her pace. But then Lokedi dropped her rival with a blistering surge, running mile splits under four minutes and 50 seconds in the last stage of the race. I was just like, ‘let me push it and see how it goes,’” Lokedi said. “I left it all out there. That’s all I can say.”
Kenyan women took the top four spots. Jess McClain placed fifth in 2:20:49, the fastest time ever for an American woman at Boston.It was a chilly start to the 130th running of the race, with temperatures at 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 Celsius) on a clear day that offered a tailwind of up to 10 MPH (16 km/h) to the runners. – (Reuters)
