Australia's interest in the World Athletics Championships is about to step up a gear as Gout Gout prepares to take to the track in Tokyo.
On Wednesday night, some time after 9:15pm AEST, Gout will run in the fifth heat of six men's 200-metre sprint races.
Expect the Australian sporting public to sit up and take note.
But it won't just be Australia with their eyes peeled and their stopwatches out — this is a debut the entire athletics world is paying careful attention to.
Why is Gout Gout such a big deal?
There hasn't been an Australian athlete with this much hype in a generation, perhaps ever.
Yet Gout is the youngest ever man to be selected for a world championships in athletics, aged just 17.
This might be his senior bow, but he has already been turning heads.
His personal best of 20.02 seconds is an Australian record, beating the 56-year-old time set by Olympic silver medallist Peter Norman.
It was also faster than eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt's U16 world best.
He has even gone under 20 seconds for the distance, although his 19.98 at the Queensland Athletics Championships in Brisbane was assisted by an illegally high wind so does not officially count.
In the last 12 months, Gout has become the face of Australian Athletics, has reportedly signed a multi-million-dollar sponsorship deal with Adidas, and spent time training with 2024 Paris Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles.
What time is Gout Gout running?
The 200m heats will take place at 9:15pm AEST on Wednesday.
Gout runs in heat five, lane eight.
Fellow Aussie Calab Law will run in lane two in the first heat, while Aidan Murphy is in lane eight of heat two.
Should Gout be one of the three fastest in his heat or one of the six next fastest, he will be up for the semifinals at 10:02pm AEST on Thursday.
The final is set for 11:06pm AEST on Friday night.
Who are the main 200m contenders?
Gout's personal best time of 20.02 marks him out as an elite competitor.
However, to illustrate the scale of the task ahead of him, it is only the 16th fastest time that's been run in the world this year.
In the field there are 23 runners with a faster personal best than Gout's.
It is for all those reasons that just getting to the semifinals would be an enormous achievement.
Pre-race favourite Lyles has set the world-leading mark at 19.63 this year.
He is one of 13 men to go sub-20 this season and showed that he still has the closing speed that has seen him win the last three world titles in this event by claiming bronze in the 100m on Sunday.
His arch-rival Kenny Bednarek, fourth in the 100m, is also a serious contender, as is Jamaica's Bryan Levell.
Letsile Tebogo may have had a 100m final to forget — the Botswanan false-started and was disqualified — but he's ranked number one by World Athletics over the half-lap distance for a reason.
Can Gout Gout make the semifinals?
Gout's main target at these championships is to beat his personal best time of 20.02.
That is a time that may well be enough to see him through to a semifinal, something Gout is certainly hopeful of achieving.
"I definitely think PB, regardless of where I come, is definitely a big success," Gout said at a media event in Tokyo on Monday.
"Hopefully if I can make it to the semis, that's even greater.
"And then if I make it into the final, that's a big success."
Big? It would be astronomical.
Of course, with the commentary around Gout reaching fever pitch of late, there appears to be a growing feeling in some sections of the media that he will step onto the Tokyo track and blow everyone away, propelling himself into a final and challenge for a medal.
And look, he might just do that — the ceiling for Gout's potential is extraordinarily high.
But he probably won't.
And at this early stage in his career, that's more than OK.
How can I watch Gout Gout at the World Athletics Championships?
You can tune in across two separate free-to-air channels to watch Gout's race, and the entire world championships.
SBS will be showing the event in its entirety, utilising the SBS Viceland channel and its OnDemand service.
However, Channel Nine also has the rights, meaning you can switch over to watch on both Channel 9 and 9Now.
ABC Sport will also be live blogging every evening session of the championships.
