Athletics-All eyes on Gout as teen talent hits the track in Melbourne

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's fascination with up-and-coming sprinter Gout Gout may hit new levels on Saturday when the 17-year-old races in the 200 metres at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.

Gout sent social media into a frenzy last December when he took Peter Norman's Australian record in the 200 with a time of 20.04 seconds at national schools championships in Brisbane.

That run earned a shout-out from 100 and 200 world record holder Usain Bolt, who posted on Instagram: "He looks like a young me."

Gout will now test himself in his first race against senior runners this season at Lakeside Stadium. Organisers expect the biggest crowd for an athletics event at the venue since Bolt appeared at the Nitro series eight years ago.

"The response to this year's Maurie Plant meet has been phenomenal, and we're closing in on a sell-out," Athletics Australia boss Simon Hollingsworth told Reuters on Thursday.

"There's something quite special about watching young athletes like Gout rise on the world stage, and it's clear that the public wants to be a part of that moment."

Gout, the son of South Sudanese immigrants, was unknown outside local athletics circles at the meet last year where he finished fifth in an unremarkable 21.39.

But he returns as the country's highest profile track athlete and boasting a multi-year sponsorship deal with Adidas.

It has all come in a hurry for Gout and his team as the teenager juggles his final year of high school at Ipswich Grammar in southeast Queensland state.

He spent part of his summer break in Florida mixing with Olympic 100 champion Noah Lyles at an Adidas training camp but was soon back at school living a normal Australian childhood.

Gout is one of seven siblings and shares a bedroom with his older brother in the family home in Spring Mountain on the outskirts of Brisbane, the host city of the 2032 Olympics.

His father works in a hospital kitchen and is an Uber driver at night. His mother worked as a cleaner but now looks after the family and their heaving four-bedroom home.

Gout found his way to athletics through his school coach Di Sheppard. The silver-haired disciplinarian, who once worked at Ipswich's school uniform shop, spotted Gout's potential when he was 12 and convinced him to join her athletics programme.

Both Sheppard and Gout's manager James Templeton, who worked with Kenyan middle distance great David Rudisha, are protective of their rising talent and respectful of his parents' wishes that school comes first.

Gout did a TV interview for Australian broadcaster Seven Network that aired on Sunday but has otherwise been sheltered from media ahead of Saturday's race.

Adidas aside, Templeton has also held off signing Gout to further sponsorship deals despite plenty of interest.

"It's partly because he's at school. We don't want too many demands on his time," Templeton told Reuters.

"But we think his value is going to continue to increase. So, all in all, I'm not in a hurry."

Gout's racing schedule is deliberately light.

He will race at national athletics championships in Perth next month and the Stawell Gift in rural Victoria state during the Easter weekend.

But he will not compete again until school holidays in June when he will race twice in Europe, including the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in Czech Republic.

The European meets are stepping stones to a World Championships debut in Tokyo in September.

While Bolt saw something of his young self in Gout, the Australian says he is not trying to emulate the Jamaican great.

"Although I do run like Usain Bolt and maybe look like him in a couple of ways, I'm just trying to be myself," he told the Seven Network.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)