BRISBANE — Australian sprinter Gout Gout ran the 200-meter dash in 20.04 seconds at the Australian high school championships sixteen months ago, setting the fastest time in Australian history and breaking the world age-group record set by Usain Bolt in 2003. Gout, then an 11th grader, eclipsed a senior national mark that had stood since the 1968 Olympics.

Gout, 18, was born in 2007 to parents who emigrated from South Sudan to Brisbane in 2005. He is the second son in a family of seven children and graduated with straight A's. Standing 6 feet tall and weighing less than 150 pounds, he can sustain a top speed of roughly 25 miles per hour during a race.

"My first couple steps I had a good start. And if I have a good start, it's kind of over. Once I get into top-end speed, I'm flying." Gout said. "Running just feeds that inner child in me that wants to kind of feel free. Running makes me feel like myself, for sure."

Gout has worked with the same coach throughout his career. When he was in seventh grade at Ipswich Grammar, Di Sheppard saw him racing classmates and recruited him to track and field training. Sheppard quit her job at a supermarket and took a job handing out school uniforms so she could coach track at the school.

Sheppard said she has taken a measured approach to developing the teenager, pointing to his physical maturation. "He only really hit puberty in the last 12 to 18 months," she said. "If I tried to make him super quick now I'd break him."