Schoolboy sensation Gout Gout has kept his cool on his first serious outing against the sprinting big dogs, easing into the semi-finals of the men's 200m at the world championships.

The 17-year-old made a slowish start in his heat on Wednesday night but found his rhythm in the straight to finish third in 20.23 seconds.

Gout will probably need to dip under the 20-second barrier - something no Australian has done before - if he's to advance to Friday's final.

But the good news is he's confident there's plenty more to give.

Jamaican Bryan Levell won Gout's heat in the quickest overall qualifying time of 19.84, while big guns Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek and reigning Olympic champ Letsile Tebogo from Botswana also got through with ease.

"I just felt that in my heat everyone wasn't up agains

See Full Page