Champions schooled by teacher Evans

Rising Australian sprinters Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy were upstaged by schoolteacher John Evans at the country's oldest and richest handicap footrace, the Stawell Gift, on Monday.

The race offers a prize of A$40,000 ($25,668) and is run every year on a 120-meter grass track with athletes handicapped according to ability and previous performances in sprints. Schoolboy Gout, who clocked a wind-assisted 19.84 seconds to win the 200m at the national championships last week, a few days after recording a 9.99 in the 100m, also with a tailwind above the allowable threshold, was eliminated by Evans in the semifinals.

Gout, 17, started 8.75 meters behind Evans, and was unable to run the 28-year-old down on a damp course in the small Victorian gold-rush town of Stawell.

Kennedy, who won silver in the 60m at the world indoors last month, also failed to reach the final after being beaten by 17-year-old Dashiell Muir, who started 7.5 meters ahead of him in their heat.

Evans won the final in 11.94 seconds, while Paris Olympic 100m semifinalist Bree Rizzo became only the second athlete to win the women's race from scratch since it was introduced in 1989.

Kennedy, 21, ran a personal best 10 seconds flat in a heat on his way to winning the 100m title at the nationals, and will next take on a world-class field including American Christian Coleman at the Diamond League in Xiamen, China, at the weekend.

Gout will return to school for a new term, before two races in Europe during his winter holiday, ahead of his anticipated world championships debut in Tokyo in September.

Reuters