All eyes will be on Gout Gout when he makes his senior national team debut next week after the 17-year-old was confirmed among a record 88 athletes in Australia’s squad for the world championships in Tokyo.
After a record-breaking individual season that has attracted global attention, the teenager will make his senior national team debut as part of an exciting young sprint team featuring the likes of Rohan Browning, Joshua Azzopardi and Torrie Lewis.
All five national relay teams have also qualified for the championships, which begin next Saturday and run for nine days, for the first time in history.
The team announced on Wednesday is the biggest sent to a world championships by Australia, and contains a number of genuine medal hopes.
Nicola Olyslagers, fresh from claiming the Diamond League high jump crown last week, will head to Tokyo as one of Australia’s best chances of winning a medal. The double Olympic silver medallist’s winning leap of 2.04cm in Zurich was a national record and the best jump in the world this year.
Five other Paris Olympic medallists have been included in the team: reigning Olympic and world champion Nina Kennedy, in-form discus thrower Matthew Denny, race walker Rhydian Cowley, middle distance runner Jessica Hull and 2022 world high jump champion Eleanor Patterson.
The squad is a blend of youth and experience, with the world No 4 pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall and fifth-ranked long jumper Liam Adcock featuring alongside nine medallists from the Under-20 world championships, including Gout, 800m sensation Claudia Hollingsworth (20), long jumper Delta Amidzovski and long distance runner Cameron Myers (both 19).
But Australia will be without Jemima Montag – a genuine medal chance in the race walk – and Lachie Kennedy, who became just the second Australian sprinter to record a legal sub-10 second 100m this year. Both pulled out with injuries in a major blow just weeks out from the championships.
Andrew Faichney, the general manager of high performance at Australian Athletics, said the size and calibre of the team showed how far the sport has come, both on the track in a broader sense.
“We’ve witnessed a real shift, not just in performance, but in national relevance,” Faichney said. “This team reflects that change. They’re world class athletes with the results to match, but just as importantly, they’re carrying the momentum of a sport that has so much belief behind it.
“From podiums to grassroots, we’re seeing the influence of this generation of athletes. They’re showing what’s possible.”
