No clash: Fans hearts broken since Gout Gout will not line up against Letsile Tebogo at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.
Fans were anticipating a clash between Gout Gout and Letsile Tebogo at the Maurie Plant Meet, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Melbourne on March 29.
Instead, Tebogo will contest the 400m while Gout Gout will headline the 400m and the event’s athlete liaison manager Nic Bideau believes the meet will still be an interesting one.
He defended the decision to not have the two athletes clash since Gout Gout is still young and they do not want to put him under any pressure whatsoever.
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Bideau noted that he breathed a sigh of relief after learning that Tebogo would compete in the 400m, meaning that Gout Gout would not really have people’s expectations on his shoulder as he races against the Olympic champion.
Despite people asking if Tebogo could run the 200m or Gout Gout move to the 400m, the decision has already been made and the athletes will stick to the events they have been confirmed for.
"When I first spoke to them, Tebogo and his manager, Federico Rosa, about coming, I asked them what event they want to do ... and immediately they said the 400m. I said, 'That suits us'," Bideau said in an interview with Wide World of Sports.
"Gout is a young man in his early development, and what we don't want to do is put him under enormous pressure to compete at a level he's not ready for yet. We hope he can be at the world champs later on this year... but you don't want people to expect too much of him too early."
Letsile Tebogo had an amazing 2024 season and he will be looking forward to extending the winning streak to 2025. He started his 2024 by setting the 300m world best and ended it with a second-place finish at the Diamond League Meeting final in Brussels.
Tebogo also became the first African to win an Olympic gold medal in the 200m at the Paris Olympic Games where he also anchored Botswana’s 4x400m relay team to a silver medal.
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On his part, Gout Gout also made headlines last season with his splendid times. He clocked a stunning 20.04 seconds in the 200m at the Australian All Schools Championships in Brisbane.
With his time, the Australian wunderkind bettered Peter Norman’s Oceanian record of 20.06 seconds that was set in 1968. On top of that, Gout Gout also improved Usain Bolt’s world age-16 best of 20.13 seconds that was set back in 2003.