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By Simon Smale
Topic:Athletics
Gout Gout will make his highly anticipated senior debut at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, one of six Australians to run in the 200m heats.
Later, Sarah Carli runs for a spot in the women's 400m hurdles final.
Follow all the action from Tokyo in our live blog.
By Simon Smale
Australians in action on day five:
By Simon Smale
Evening Simon. I've not long come off the BBC Sport/Athletics website where they promise the medal table. However, it only provides the top 5 nations (with GB yet to open their account). I was hoping you may be generous enough to provide a more extensive medal table.
– Old timer
Hi Old timer.
For you, anything.
Here's the top 10, with the USA in the lead, Kenya second and Canada third.
Shout out to fourth-placed New Zealand with their two gold medals so far.
Here's 11-20.
And here are 21-30, featuring the Aussies, who are in 22nd.
By Simon Smale
– Reuters
Australian discus king Matt Denny is chasing his first world championships medal in Tokyo and will do it alongside the man he regards as both the benchmark and a drinking buddy: world record holder Mykolas Alekna.
Denny and the 22-year-old Lithuanian took the sport to new heights with the benefit of tailwinds at an event in Ramona, Oklahoma, in April and will battle again at Tokyo National Stadium this weekend.
"We're vicious competitors and there's banter — but we're not vicious in tongue," Denny told Reuters of his relationship with Alekna.
"He's a good kid. He was very quiet when he first hit the Diamond Leagues [DL], but I've brought him out of his shell a bit.
"We went out after the Brussels DL, had a few beers — fun night. Some guys mix, some don't. For us, we've got a great relationship."
At "Throw Town" in Ramona, Alekna smashed his own world record with a heave of 75.56m, while 29-year-old Denny threw a PB of 74.78m.
The pair may not match the fireworks they produced in Middle America but will back themselves to stand on the podium again a year on from the Paris Games where they both earned their first Olympic medals.
Alekna took silver and Denny the bronze behind Jamaica's surprise winner Rojé Stona.
Alekna has already claimed two world medals, bronze in Budapest behind Swedish winner Daniel Ståhl in 2023, a year after being second to Slovene Kristjan Čeh at Eugene, Oregon.
It helps that his dad Virgilijus is among the sport's all-time greats, a winner of back-to-back Olympic golds at Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).
"He's got some good genes — but I think pretty much the whole discus park does," said Denny.
"I grew up idolising Virgilijus as a competitor along with guys like Mac Wilkins and a few others."
Since his blazing start to the season in Oklahoma, the results have been flatter in the first year of the new Olympic cycle but Denny is unfazed.
"We want to be world champions, not good in the middle of the season," he said.
"Last year I might've been more stressed. Now I know exactly where I need to be.
"Once the day comes, it's wind it up and have a crack."
Qualification for the men's discus final takes place at 10:00am AEDT on Saturday, September 20.
By Simon Smale
Peter Bol would have been disappointed not to reach the semifinals in the 800m.
Bol actually ran the same time in his heat yesterday as he did in the Olympic Games at the same venue when he came fourth overall.
Sadly, times mean little in the tactical world of middle distance running and, given he also finished fourth in his race this year, he missed the cut to make the semis.
That disappointment is tempered though by the strength in depth of Australian athletics at the moment.
Here's what he said after the racing yesterday.
By Simon Smale
Day four saw Jess Hull secure a first ever medal for Australia in the 1,500m at a world championships.
Having twice finished seventh in the global showpiece final, Hull's breakthrough silver at the Olympics in Paris last year proved to her that not only did she belong at this level, but that she was a contender to win it all.
That comes with a different sort of pressure though, which meant that when she hung on for grim life to stay in the top three yesterday evening, she felt mostly relief when she crossed the line.
Faith Kipyegon became the four-time world champion and was simply a class above as she led Kenyan athletes to three of the top four positions.
But Hull was not far behind and, given the right conditions, feels that there may be a chance for her to go for gold in the next few years.
By Simon Smale
Joy for bronze medallist Jess Hull.
Stoic reflection for Peter Bol.
It was a mixed bag for Australia's athletes on a night where a bronze medal was captured in the 1,500m but one of the leading lights in the 800m failed to reach the semifinals.
Catch up on everything that happened in our live blog from yesterday.
By Simon Smale
Look, I know that's why most of you are here.
Gout will take to the track some time after 9:15pm AEDT today.
He is running in the fifth heat of six, and is in lane eight.
Find out more below.
By Simon Smale
Good evening folks and welcome to the ABC Sport coverage of the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
It's day five of this competition, so just ticking over the half way mark of competition.
It is a day that many fans of athletics both in Australia and around the world may well have circled as one they would not want to miss, as teen sensation Gout Gout takes to the track for the first time at a senior world athletics competition.
That is, of course, where a lot of attention will be directed, but Gout is one of just nine Aussies in action tonight, with six all running in the half-lap sprint.
My name is Simon Smale and I'll bring you coverage of all of those events as they happen.
ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that's making headlines.
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