Australia’s next great sprint rivalry is taking shape

Gout Gout has been the name echoing through global track circles — the Australian phenom with Sudanese roots who many see as the only true heir to Usain Bolt. He’s already clocked a wind‑aided 9.99 and an official 10.00 in the 100 meters, plus a jaw‑dropping 19.67 in the 200, a world U20 record that toppled Bolt’s own mark.

But another Australian sprinter may be about to crash the party: Eddie Nketia, 25, whose explosive speed is turning heads across the sport.

Nketia just ripped a 9.74 in Nebraska while competing for the University of Southern California — aided by an illegal tailwind of more than 5 m/s, but still fast enough that, under legal conditions, it would have placed him among the five fastest men in history, only 0.16 off Bolt’s legendary 9.58.

Breaking through the 10-second barrier

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, and the son of an Olympic sprinter, Nketia once dreamed of becoming an All Black. But track — and even a flirtation with American football — pulled him in another direction. Australia entered the picture too: he officially switched allegiance from New Zealand to Australia on January 1, 2026, after competing for the Kiwis at the 2019 Doha and 2022 Eugene World Championships.

And the progress is real. Just a couple of months ago, he blasted a 9.84, also wind‑aided. Patrick Johnson’s long‑standing Australian record of 9.93 (set in Perth in 2003) is hanging by a thread after 23 years. The only question is whether Gout Gout or Nketia will be the one to finally break it.

Nketia isn’t shy about his ambitions: “Running 9.74, even with the wind, is crazy. It shows I’m improving — I can see the progress, and there’s a lot of season left. I’m hoping to finally get a legal personal best and prove I can compete. The future looks bright. Once I finish college, I want to race everywhere, hopefully in Europe later this year.”

One thing seems certain: Australia is assembling a terrifyingly good 4x100 relay squad for the 2027 World Championships in Beijing and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Alongside Gout Gout and Nketia, sprinters like Lachlan Kennedy and Rohan Browning round out what may be a golden generation for Aussie speed.

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