American teenager Lutkenhaus stuns Olympic champion as Gout learns lesson

Cooper Lutkenhaus dives over the line to win the 800m by 0.01sec in Oslo. Photograph: Sona Maleterova/ View image in fullscreen Cooper Lutkenhaus dives over the line to win the 800m by 0.01sec in Oslo. Photograph: Sona Maleterova/ American teenager Lutkenhaus stuns Olympic champion as Gout learns lesson Cooper Lutkenhaus, 17, wins 800m by 0.01sec Gout Gout sixth; Tebogo says: ‘He has a long way to go’ There are few venues more deeply embedded into track and field’s soul than the Bislett Stadion. An extraordinary 70 world records have been set here. Plenty of reputations have been made. Plenty more left frayed, too. And so it proved again as the brilliant 17-year-old American Cooper Lutkenhaus added to his staggering résumé 800m champion, Emmanuel ­Wanyonyi, with a race for the ages in Oslo. But another, the Australian star Gout Gout, learned what it is like in the big leagues. When it came to Lutkenhaus versus Wanyonyi, there was no time for preliminaries. At the gun, Wanyonyi charged after the pacemaker. ­Lutkenhaus, who won the world indoor title in March, followed. They were through halfway at 49.81sec and already it was a two-horse race. Meet Cooper Lutkenhaus, 17, the phenom who became 800m world champion while at school Lutkenhaus showed he was no respecter of reputations as he kicked hard at 200m and went five metres clear coming around the bend. But as he tied up, Wanyonyi ­rallied, and Lutkenhaus needed a superman dive to run the fastest time of the year, 1min 42.08sec, to win by 0.01. “To beat the Olympic champion is awesome and it means a lot,” said ­Lutkenhaus. “I have not seen the grazes yet from my dive but I think they will hurt in the shower later.” There are caveats. Wanyonyi had other things on his mind after the birth of his first child, Noela, last week. He is also looking to peak later in the season. Even so this was a mighty performance, as the Kenyan himself recognised. “This boy is in good shape,” he said. “Can you believe that as an Olympic champion, you are trying to knock down a 17-year-old boy? But the season is still early.” Before the race the US website Let’s Run had asked whether Lutkenhaus could be considered the world ­No 1 if he won. But when asked about it afterwards the American offered a response beyond his years. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “Wanyonyi’s the Olympic champ.