EVERY HERO NEEDS, if not a villain, then a rival. Someone to spur them on to greater heights. Messi has Ronaldo, Federer had Djokovic and Nadal, Tom Brady had Peyton Manning, LeBron chased Jordan’s ghost, Ali had Foreman and Frazier. And in athletics, even Usain Bolt had at various times, Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake. It’s very early days but it’s looking like Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy have each other. And the winner could be Australian athletics.
Kennedy has drawn blood once again in the duo’s budding rivalry, holding on to defeat a fast-finishing Gout for the second year running at the 200m event at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne on the weekend.
Kennedy clocked a season best 20.38, pipping Gout (20.43) by five-hundredths of a second in wet conditions at the track.
Kennedy got his trademark lightning start, while Gout was a little slow out of the blocks, leaving himself a lot to do in the second half of the race. While he closed on his fellow Queensland rival, Gout had given Kennedy too much of a start.
Commentator Bruce McAvaney hailed Kennedy, saying: “We’ve seen it before and he’s done it again. He’s brilliant, he really is. He was magnificent tonight.
“What he did in that first 100m is absolutely breathtaking. Gout acknowledges the fact that at the moment, Lachie is the No. 1.”
Kennedy knew Gout would come home strong and was determined to hold on.
“You know he’s [Gout] going to come, so it’s all about holding on and not panicking,” Kennedy said after the race.
“He will make up ground but [it’s] just knowing in your head that he’s going to come, and you’ve just got to not freak out and stay relaxed.”
Kennedy, 22, was clearly on song on Saturday night, having clocked a new meet record of 10.04 in the 100m earlier in the evening.
Last year, the Queenslander registered a blistering 9.98 seconds at the Kip Keino Classic in Kenya to become the first Australian in 22 years to legally break the 10-second barrier in the Men’s 100m.
In doing so, Kennedy became the first Aussie to achieve the feat since Patrick Johnson’s 9.93 Australian record in 2003.
Who is Lachlan Kennedy?
Put simply, Kennedy is the fastest man in Australia right now. The Queenslander boasts the second fastest 100m time by an Australian ever of 9.98, behind Patrick Johnson (9.93).
Gout’s fastest time 100m time is a wind-assisted 9.99 seconds (3.5 m/s tailwind), achieved twice in April 2025 during the Australian Athletics Championships. The 18-year-old Queensland prodigy has also clocked a legal 10.00-second 100m in February 2026, equalling the fastest legal time by an Australian on home soil.
The pair’s rivalry is also brewing in the 200m. While Gout is the Australian 200m record holder with a time of 19.98, Kennedy has now beaten him twice in the 200m final at the Maurie Plant Meet, with his own PB. Last year, Kennedy ran 20.26 – smashing his previous best time of 20.93 – to sneak home ahead of Gout, who clocked 20.30.
Previously, Kennedy was a member of the 4x100m relay team that set an Oceania record of 38.12 at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He also claimed the silver medal in the 60m event at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in China.
Kennedy excelled in Rugby as a junior, before switching to athletics. He’s also completed a degree in engineering and design at the University of Queensland.
What are Lachlan Kennedy’s strengths as a sprinter?
Kennedy is powerfully built, with a fast reaction time that allows him to blast out of the blocks. And get this – Kennedy quarter-squats – that is, goes a quarter of the way down into a squat then surges upwards hard as he can – 300kg. This has helped him set some blistering times at the 60m distance, although the fact that he was able to hold off Gout, a renowned fast finisher over 200m, shows he does have the stamina to succeed at the longer distance as well.
Does Lachlan Kennedy have diabetes?
Yes, Kennedy was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2018, a condition that impacts his training and performance. “In 2018 I was medically diagnosed with type one diabetes, basically just making everything I do much harder, whether that was eating, doing sport, sleeping, anything I always had to monitor my condition,” Kennedy says. “And I still do. I have just gotten a lot better at it and I now have better control over levels and stuff than ever.”
When will Lachlan Kennedy race next?
Kennedy will next run at the prestigious Ostrava Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic on June 24 where he’ll take on Gout in the 200m, before travelling to the USA for the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic on July 5.
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