Sinesipho Dambile to face teen world No 1 Gout in Oslo Diamond League meet

Sinesipho Dambile will take on the world’s fastest 200m sprinter so far this year, teen sensation Gout Gout of Australia, when he lines up at the Diamond League meet in Oslo on Wednesday night.

Dambile, whose 19.77 sec from Nairobi in April ranks him third on the 200m top list, is one of only two South Africans in action on the night.

Middle-distance star Tshepo Tshite, the South African 1,500m record-holder who used to compete regularly at 800m, is stepping up to the 5,000m where he faces world championship silver medallist Isaac Kimeli of Belgium and 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Grant Fisher of the US.

Dambile, 24, finished strongly in his last outing in Stockholm on Sunday, ending second behind American star Kenny Bednarek, who is second on the world list with his 19.69 in Rabat on May 31.

But the pacesetter for 2026 so far is 18-year-old Australian prospect Gout, who is being touted as a future track-and-field star.

The 18-year-old is running his first 200m since he went 19.67 at the Australian championships in Sydney in April.

The favourite in the line-up is probably Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, who was second behind Bednarek in Morocco. Dambile ended third in that race. Bednarek is not competing in Norway.

Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago, who has a 20.13 200m season’s best, is also in the mix, having finished third in the 400m behind Zakithi Nene in Sweden on Sunday.

Defending champion Reynier Mena of Cuba, with a 19.63 personal best, also won the 200m at the Stockholm Diamond League meet last year.

But all eyes will be on Gout, who finished second behind Dambile’s training partner, Bayanda Walaza, in the 200m at the under-20 world championships in Peru in 2024.

Dambile and Gout have not raced each other before, but the South African advanced further at the world championships in Tokyo last year.

Both progressed beyond the heats where Dambile was third in 20.27 and Gout was also third in 20.23. But Dambile advanced to the final when he went 19.97 to cross the line third in a stacked semifinal won by Noah Lyles. Zharnel Hughes of Britain was second.

Gout, the child of South Sudan refugees, ended fourth in his semifinal in 20.36.

So far Gout is 1-0 up against Mena and 0-1 down to Tebogo.