Gout Gout misses 200m final at Tokyo World Athletics Championships

Seventeen-year-old Australian sprinter Gout Gout qualified for the semifinals but fell short of the 200m final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, finishing fourth in his semi on Thursday in wet conditions in 20.36 seconds. The Queensland schoolboy had advanced from Wednesday's heats in third place in 20.23 after a late surge, but that time proved insufficient to move him into Friday's title race.

Gout, making his senior world championships debut, overcame a sluggish start in his heat to charge home over the final 50 metres and secure automatic progression. He finished behind Jamaican Bryan Levell, who won the heat in 19.84, and Zimbabwe's Makanakaishe Charamba, who ran 20.06. Gout's 20.23 in the opening round was the eleventh fastest time in Australian history and came on the back of an exceptional 12 months that included an Australian record of 20.02 earlier this year.

In the semifinal, Gout was drawn into an especially tough race that featured several athletes with sub-20 personal bests, including reigning Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo and heat winner Levell. The championships' qualification system takes the top two in each semi automatically, with the remaining...