The Stawell Gift, one of Australia’s more peculiar sporting traditions, is held each year during Easter at Central Park in the small town of Stawell in western Victoria. Though the ground shares its name with the green hub in the middle of Manhattan, it is not often confused with it.
New York’s version has been made famous by literature, film and television. There are the scenes from Ghostbusters. References in The Catcher in the Rye. Countless glimpses in Seinfeld, or Sex and the City. Stawell’s alternative does not enjoy the same status within international culture. But for a moment over the Easter weekend it did at least enjoy the world athletics spotlight.
Gout Gout, one of sprinting’s fastest teenagers, chose to complete his season with an appearance at the Stawell Gift, Australia’s oldest running race. It has now been run 143 times, going back to the formative years of the town in the midst of the gold rushes of the 19th century.
That history permeates this Central Park. From the winners’ plaques on the clubhouse, to the ground’s charming but dilapidated grandstands, the manual scoreboard, a grassy bank populated by camping chairs, hot chips in cups and a quaint English garden.
Despite the long traditions, few locals could remember ever seeing a show like Gout. The attendance at Central Park on Monday was 5,827 – around double who came last year – and almost every vantage point was occupied. The paths snaking around field slowed to a standstill for much of the day. That attendance figure, to put it in perspective, was the highest recorded for at least two decades. The town’s official population is 6,220.
Hotels, motels and caravan parks around town were packed and it was clear many, like Queensland’s Gout, had come from afar. The 17-year-old ran 19.84s over 200m in Perth last weekend, flew back to Brisbane for three days of school, then flew to Victoria.
He was drawn by the occasion, the tradition and the atmosphere. It was to be a fitting way to conclude an extraordinary season, but the money was pretty good too. There was a $50,000 appearance fee, and the chance to win the first prize of $40,000.
The spectacular drone shot, that has been shared millions of times in recent days, was a bonus. “It was a really cool drone shot, and to see how I catch up to everyone was pretty cool,” Gout said. “In my blocks, I could hear it, and I’m saying to myself, ‘What is that?’ And at the end, I found it was a drone,” he said.
There's a 17-year-old kid in Australia, named Gout Gout, who has run 100m in 9.99 seconds, and 200m in 19.84 seconds.
— Dan Clark (@DanClarkSports) April 19, 2025
He is considered to have as much potential as Usain Bolt, and will probably be an Olympic champion one day.
Here's some absolutely crazy footage of him today... pic.twitter.com/ScO3qpr2hc
That vision was also a good way to enjoy the work of Kevin “Cabbage” Rickard. The curator has been turning the town’s footy oval into a high-level grass athletics surface for 40 years. He said this year’s was his best work, and nobody disagreed.
The grass track may be common to the so-called professional circuit of country meets that occupy the Australian summer, but to high-level sprinters competing on such a surface is unusual. It is not the only thing about Stawell that demands adjustment to outsiders.
There is the format of the racing, where handicappers give all but the fastest runners head starts, some as large as 10m in a 120m race. The desired outcome is that each runner has at least a chance of winning each race, encouraging punters a compelling bet on the outcome. There is a single on-course bookie, who was busy throughout the day. But the appearance of Gout was unusual in this context too. Under local gambling laws, bets can’t be taken on children, and so – as much as those present might have wanted to – a wager on a victory for the 17-year-old was prohibited.
Volunteers from the Stawell Athletic Club, dressed immaculately in maroon blazers and ties were dotted around the venue. Inside the tent handing out singlets, one said the tradition of requiring athletes to wear the brightly-coloured but consistent uniforms can be a point of contention. There are two sizes, but some athletes will choose to tie up their singlets at the waist to reduce the drag.
Not long after Gout put on his red silk singlet for the semi-final, two heavy showers passed through. The second one resulted in a power failure, killing the commentary and forcing the big screen to go black. On a heavy track, and with his red uniform billowing in the headwind, the teenager could do no better than second and was eliminated.
The final image the thousands of fans will have of Gout was the teenager’s appearance in the back-markers’ invitational, a mixed-gender consolation race. Although he could not be the subject of wagering, Gout was able to wear the logo of the beer company which sponsored the race. He did not get close to winning, but spent minutes signing autographs and posing for selfies to the young fans shouting “Gout, Gout, Gout” at every opportunity.
One police officer was impressed by the turnout, suspecting Gout had helped sell many thousands more tickets over the weekend. A local he was conversing with suggested it was a positive outcome for athletics, helping creating a cycle and draw more child to the sport. “Better than playing a Playstation,” he said.
Gout’s team was treating the appearance at Stawell as a celebration of what has been a fantastic few months. And the teenager seemed to enjoy it. Just as the men’s final was about to begin, he hugged the day’s star performer Bree Rizzo, who did something even Gout couldn’t do – win as a back-marker, from scratch.
Rizzo was in a state of elation. “I did it,” she said, asking Gout how his run was. “It was really good,” Gout said. “It was actually so fun.”
