After Gout Gout, popularly called the “new Usain Bolt,” ran a 19.67s run and set the new world U20 record, some eyebrows were raised. There was skepticism as the Sydney Olympic Park center had gotten a Rekortan Gel track upgrade for the first time in a decade. Not just Gout Gout, but ALL top 7 runners ran their personal bests that day in the 200m final. Now, adding to that voice of doubt, is another former US College sprinter.

Erin Brown, a former NCAA sprinter and now a famous track-and-field TikToker, has questioned Gout’s record, given the conditions in both Australia and New Zealand.

“Never trust a time ran in Australia or New Zealand,” Brown said in a video posted on his official X account.

“The sh** will always be fake and never replicated anywhere else because it’s going to be windy despite whatever the wind gauge says.”

This time, Erin Brown cites the example of Tommy Te Puni, a New Zealand sprinter who broke the national record in the 200m running 20.35s today. Brown says the official tailwind cited was +1.2m/s, but he cited the moving trees and Te Puni’s hair in the post-race interview to argue the windy conditions were more than the official count.

But the former American sprinter wasn’t done yet as he used that as the crutch for his point against Gout Gout. Brown then concluded, “Two NATIONAL championships. Two different countries.
Same pattern: • Whole fields dropping 0.3–0.5…. That’s not how sprint progression usually works.”

On the other hand, it’s also worth mentioning that Te Puni had already run a 20.35s time before. That was in mid-February, showing he can run that time in a legal wind setting. But this has been an ongoing conversation for Brown.

Just days ago, Brown had said the same thing about the Australian Championships 200m, where 7 runners together clocked a personal best in the 200m final. He had said, “This sh*t is clearly fake. This is as fake as it comes. Everybody in the race runs a half-second faster than they ever ran…Australia continues producing some of the fakest marks that we ever see and y’all gas that sh*t up every time.”

Brown wasn’t the only one with doubts. Let’s Run.com sports writer, Jonathan Gault, had said on X, “Have to wonder a bit about the times in the Australian 200m final. The top seven all ran personal bests — and the top 5 all PR’d by .20 or more.”

However, Brown’s claims might not stand, as the World Athletics and Australian Athletics have ratified Gout Gout’s U20 and national record. It does mark a great improvement from the 18-year-old, given that his previous best, legal time was 20.02 in the 200m. But the phenom has come within a whisker of Olympic legend Usain Bolt’s U20 record before, having run 19.84 seconds and 19.98 in Australia in 2025, although on both runs, the wind was above the limits.

This season alone, he has clocked in at 20.42 as his best, finishing second with a 20.43-second time at the Maurie Plant Meet in March. In 2025, the closest legal time he managed was the aforementioned 20.02 at the 64th Ostrava Golden Spike in June, with a best of 20.05 at the Queensland Athletics Championships in March, showing a clear improvement.

But his actual best times were never ratified, but this time, there will be no asterisk next to the time, and yet, for Gout Gout, there’s more to come in the future.

Gout Gout reflects on breaking Usain Bolt’s time

After all, the 18-year-old is considered to be track and field’s future, which comes as no shock given just how fast he has been progressing from the moment he made his debut. He still holds the U16 100m and 200m Australian records before breaking the U18 Australian 200m record as a 15-year-old. As if that wasn’t enough, as a 16-year-old, he became one of the fastest teenagers in the world when he ran 20.04 seconds in 2024.

An astonishing rise, no doubt, and one that has come with its own pressures and labels along the way as it usually does. Yet Gout Gout has dealt with them well, as after his latest record-breaking 200m, the teenage phenom was only looking to the future.

“I’ve been chasing it ever since I got that illegal sub-20 seconds. It’s been on my mind this whole year and past couple of months, so I’m glad ​I got it,” Gout said as per Reuters.

“It’s absolutely insane. You could say it’s a big weight off my shoulders, knowing ​that I ran it legally and I have the speed in my body to run times like that. “

That alone makes Gout Gout that much more impressive, but the sceptics won’t just disappear because the clock says 19.67. There will always be people like Erin Brown questioning him, especially in a sport where one windy day can send shockwaves through record‑book debates. 

But for now, the time is legal, the record stands, and the numbers on the board now say that an 18‑year‑old Australian has overtaken Usain Bolt on paper at that age. Only time will tell what will happen.