Champions schooled by teacher Evans

Rising Australian sprinters Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy were upstaged by schoolteacher John Evans at the country's oldest and richest handicap footrace, the Stawell Gift, on Monday.

The race offers a prize of A$40,000 ($25,668) and is run every year on a 120-meter grass track with athletes handicapped according to ability and previous performances in sprints. Schoolboy Gout, who clocked a wind-assisted 19.84 seconds to win the 200m at the national championships last week, a few days after recording a 9.99 in the 100m, also with a tailwind above the allowable threshold, was eliminated by Evans in the semifinals.

Gout, 17, started 8.75 meters behind Evans, and was unable to run the 28-year-old down on a damp course in the small Victorian gold-rush town of Stawell.