Rising Australian sprinting sensation Gout Gout will run at the Stawell Gift in April.
The 17-year-old has agreed in principle to contest the iconic 120-metre race, which The Age reported before Wide World of Sports confirmed with Gout's manager, James Templeton.
The agreement is yet to be signed off but Gout's word that he will compete in the handicapped race is an enormous coup for the country Victorian event, which this year will be held for the 143rd time.
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The Stawell Gift is scheduled for April 19-21 with the showpiece fixture of the grass event at Central Park, the 120-metre race, to be held on Easter Monday.
The winners of the men's and women's 120m races will both pocket $40,000 at an event that's billed as "Australia's richest footrace".
No man has won from scratch at the Stawell Gift since Josh Ross in 2005. Whether Gout is able to mow down his rivals on Easter Monday is a mouthwatering prospect.
Among the track and field legends to have run at the Stawell Gift are Olympic gold medallists Cathy Freeman, Kim Collins and Asafa Powell.
Gout will next race at the Queensland championships, to be held in Brisbane from March 13-16, where he will contest the 100m and 200m.
The Adidas-sponsored prodigy will then compete in the 200m at Melbourne's Maurie Plant Meet on March 29.
At the Australian championships in Perth in April, a week before the Stawell Gift, Gout will compete in the open division in the 200m and the under-20 field in the 100m.
In the Ipswich product's most recent viral run, he broke the Australian 200m record set by the iconic Peter Norman at the Mexico City 1968 Olympics.
Gout, 16 at the time, clocked 20.04 seconds in Brisbane in December to better the fastest time recorded by Usain Bolt at the same age. Bolt's personal best at 16 was 20.13.
In January, Gout spent two weeks in Clermont, Florida on a camp with the squad of American megastar Noah Lyles, the reigning 100m Olympic champion.
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