TOKYO :Australian teenager Gout Gout said he felt right at home in his first senior outing on the global stage after clocking 20.33 seconds to finish third in his 200 metres heat on Wednesday and qualify for the world championship semi-finals.

The 17-year-old has attracted worldwide attention and earned comparisons to Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt since breaking his country's long-standing 200m record and running a string of fast times over the last year.

With Bolt watching from the stands on another night of suffocating humidity in Tokyo, Gout got away to a relatively slow start in lane eight but soon had his long legs moving and fought his way to the front of the field before the second bend.

He coasted down the straight behind Jamaican Bryan Levell and Zimbabwean Makanakaishe C

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