Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout has been upstaged by rival Lachie Kennedy in the 200m at the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne on a night that confirms athletics’ resurgence in Australia. In front of around 10,000 fans at Lakeside Stadium, the first sell-out at an Australian one-day athletics meet in more than two decades, the 17-year-old finished just four hundredths of a second behind his fellow Queenslander. Kennedy, who last week won Australia’s first medal in the 60m at the world indoor championships, finished in a personal best of 20.26s after running a powerful bend and holding off Gout at the line. The 21-year-old said he could feel Gout, the 200m national record-holder, closing in the final metres and said he “got lucky” this time. “My goal was just to go out hard and try my best to hold him off,” Kennedy said. Gout said he will use the defeat as motivation, and competing against Kennedy in recent years has helped him improve his speed. “It’s not a new rivalry, but it’s a rivalry I appreciate and I love Lachie, he’s also a Queenslander,” he said. The Maurie Plant meet is the one-day highlight of the Australian athletics calendar, but it comes two weeks before the national titles in Perth, where the pair are set to meet again. Gout said he would be ready for the next race. “It definitely puts fuel to my fire, and it lights that burn, so when I get to training, [I will] work even harder and help better myself for nationals.” Kennedy was backing up in the final race of the night after winning the 100m early in the evening. Although he didn’t go close to the 10-second barrier in blustery conditions, his 10.17s was too good for national champion Seb Sultana and Rohan Browning, who finished third. In the women’s 200m, Kristie Edwards ran a sensational bend and held on for victory, with Jessica Milat second and Torrie Lewis fading for a disappointing fifth. Paris Olympics 200m gold-medal winner Letsile Tebogo chose to run the 400m but was beaten into second place by his countryman Bayapo Ndori, with another Botswanan, Leungo Scotch, in third. The country was narrowly pipped for gold by the USA in the 4x400m relay in Paris. Tebogo’s run on Saturday was his season’s best in the longer event but he now shifts gears for the northern hemisphere summer. “Now, we are done, we are focused on the 200 metres, now we did what we wanted to do,” he said. One of Australia’s other teenage stars, Cameron Myers, broke a high-quality men’s 1500m field, stretching out in the final lap and holding on to beat Adam Spencer. “It was tough conditions, but I was able to muscle it out as best I could,” Myers said. In the women’s 1500m, Claudia Hollingsworth sprinted away in the final straight to defeat Sarah Billings, Linden Hall and Abbey Caldwell. After the 19-year-old won with a season’s best time, she said it was a “crazy” race, and the field was “insane”. “Lots of pushing, lots of change of position, not quite the race plan I predicted, but I got the job done in the end,” she said. Two-time Olympian Ellie Beer capped off a memorable week with a strong performance in women’s 400m. The 22-year-old was part of Australia’s women’s 4x400m relay team that won bronze in the world indoor championships a week ago. She streaked home for a personal best 51.35s in the women’s 400m, winning by more than a second and a half. High jumper Eleanor Patterson made the most of the absence of Nicola Olyslagers to win the women’s high jump easily with a clearance of 1.94m. Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny won the discus with a throw of 68.17m, within two metres of his national record. In front of the jammed grandstands at Lakeside, Denny said it was a memorable evening. “Even that intro, when you look out and the stadium is packed, and getting that good throw, that’s probably up there with my top three moments of my career,” he said.