For the rising stars of track and field, a first Wanda Diamond League appearance is always a major career milestone.
If you are competing in the Diamond League, it means you have made it to the global stage – and that you are ready to lock horns with the greatest athletes in the world.
So when Gout Gout touched down in Monaco last July, he knew the whole world would be watching.
Australia’s 17-year-old sprint sensation had been making headlines for months, smashing countless national records and even earning comparisons with Jamaican legend Usain Bolt.
In Monaco, he was now set to headline his first race at a Diamond League meeting: a pre-programme Under-23 200m.
Though there were no Diamond League points on offer, this was still a chance for Gout to make a statement and prove he was ready for the very pinnacle of global track.
At a meeting which also included the likes of Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo and Julien Alfred, the teenage star now found himself sharing a stage with a whole host of Olympic and world champions.
Yet if he was feeling the pressure, he didn’t show it in the slightest.
Roared on by the passionate crowd at the Stade Louis II, the Australian stormed to an impressive 20.10, winning the race comfortably and kickstarting a night of thrilling drama in Monaco.
“Today was just about getting relaxed and focusing on what I’ve been doing in training, and that’s what I did,” he said.
“My first race in the Diamond League was about just getting my feet out there. Obviously I’m feeling very excited to race everyone out in the big league – Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo – so I just want to go out there and see what I can do.”
Gout certainly showed that, and his win in Monaco proved to be yet another step on his apparently inexorable rise to the top.
By the end of the season, he had hit another milestone, reaching the 200m semi-final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
It won’t be long, no doubt, before the Australian is back on the global stage in the Wanda Diamond League.
