Before Zhang Ziyi came on the court, he already knew what the situation was like in his group stage.
There are 7 players in total. Except for Ater from Kyrgyzstan, the rest are not easy to deal with. Among them are Roger from Qatar, Mike Knight from Bahrain, Annans from Indonesia...
Including Zhang Ziyi himself, there are already four of them who were his opponents in the men's 400m final of last year's Asian Games.
According to Zhang Ziyi's estimation, by the end of this competition, apart from the top three players who advance, it is very likely that the remaining players will sweep away at least half of the qualifying spots in this preliminary round.
In the preliminary round, the seven contestants were eyeing each other eagerly, and even Zhang Ziyi showed no sign of letting up or showing any weakness.
Among the seven people, Roger, Anans and him were the champion, runner-up and third place winners of last year's Asian Games respectively. The three met in the preliminaries in advance. I'm afraid that even the Qatar organizers did not expect the result of this random group assignment.
In the commentary booth, Shao Min and the other two's voices also had a hint of humor in them.
"This game will at least be at the level of a semi-final."
This is a very true statement.
In this schedule, the men's 400m preliminaries are scheduled for the evening of the first day. For the athletes who have the potential to advance, the real physical test will come from tomorrow's semi-finals and finals.
If they want to truly break through and achieve good enough results in the semi-finals and finals tomorrow morning and evening, they must have a clear plan for the allocation of their physical energy.
There is no way they can truly go all out in tonight's 400m preliminaries.
However, the situation in the third group of the preliminaries is indeed special, so these players will definitely consume more energy than expected.
Whenever possible, these players would certainly hope to advance directly to the top three rather than qualifying for the semi-finals through substitutions.
In front of the TV, the audience, who were already nervous after hearing the "Death Group" trailer, became even more nervous after listening to Shao Minyi and Li Sen's commentary.
In the Chinese players' area in the audience seats, coaches such as Jiang Wentao and Wang Ting were also watching the situation on the field.
Jiang Wentao shook his head and smiled: "With Ziyi's current strength, I'm not worried about whether he can advance, but I'm worried about what results he will get to advance."
Wang Ting, who was listening to what was going on, started to scold and laugh, "Old Jiang, your idea is a mistake! Qualifying is still qualifying no matter what the result is! A year ago, we still had to worry about whether the contestants could successfully advance to the semi-finals, and now you are getting cocky."
Jiang Wentao and several coaches from other events nearby also started laughing when they heard Wang Ting's laughter and scolding.
While the audience was chatting, the athletes on the field were already ready to start the race. Each athlete stood behind his or her starting block. Anans, Roger, McNight, Zhang Ziyi and others were all trying to outdo each other.
This race used tracks 2 to 8. Kyrgyzstan's Ater was placed on track 8. Even the audience in the stands could sense that Ater was a little anxious. He kept looking back at the players behind him, and it was obvious that his condition was not stable.
The remaining two players who have not met Zhang Ziyi and others in the Asian Games finals are from Kazakhstan and Iraq. They are both strong in their own right, but they seem inconspicuous under the halo of the four finalists including Zhang Ziyi.
Soon, the referee's command of "on your marks" was heard over the radio. As the athletes walked around the starting blocks and bent down to get into a squatting position, a somewhat suppressed cheer was heard from the audience. The Qatari athlete Roger was the star of Qatar's 400-meter sprint event. Many spectators who came to watch the game came to support this star athlete from their country.
Compared with the past, Zhang Ziyi no longer has the inferiority complex he once had on the court. Now when facing these opponents on the court, he can face their existence more rationally and objectively.
Only the data comparison of his opponent's performance, technical characteristics, and recent status was still remembered in his mind. According to Su Bai:
[You don't need to care about which country your opponent is from or what race he is. What you need to do is to understand all your opponents, be wary of them, and then try to surpass them. 】
Plop, plop.
Zhang Ziyi squatted on his starting block, listening to his heartbeat and breathing, waiting for the referee to give the "ready" signal.
This is just a preliminary match for the Asian Championships.
He told himself so.
but……
This will also verify the effectiveness of my training during this period.
Zhang Ziyi went over the results of all the opponents present in his mind, and then - he thought, he could put in a little more effort than expected.
When the "ready" sound was heard on the radio, there was only a brief pause, and then - "bang"!
The crisp sound of the starting gun rang out behind the contestants. In just a blink of an eye, the seven figures on the track suddenly began to rush forward together!
On the track, Mike Knight, Zhang Ziyi, Roger, and Annans were in lanes 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively. These four obviously had no intention of giving in to each other, and all wanted to get the top three spots in this race and qualify directly!
In addition to these four people, Amankur and Mustafa on the 2nd and 7th tracks did not look like they were going to give up at the start. Their starting speed was not slow at all. On the starting curve, Amankur and Mustafa's pace was also very fast and agile, wanting to compete with the other four top players on the field!
Among all the players, Arter was perhaps the only one who encountered some accidents. Arter, who was in the 8th track, had a slightly delayed reaction at the start, and even his entire starting action was not particularly smooth. It seemed that it was because he was competing with so many top players that his overall condition seemed a little bad.
The audience in the stands and in front of the TV can clearly see the situation of the players on the field, but Zhang Ziyi, who is on the field, of course cannot see this information and content.
At the starting stage, he does not need to pay special attention to the players around him. He only needs to focus on what is in front of him, so that he can maintain enough speed advantage at the starting stage and use his strongest explosive power to accumulate enough strength for himself.
Therefore, everyone only saw that on the runways in the middle of the track, among the black-skinned athletes, there was a yellow lightning. His speed when he started was no slower than those naturalized black athletes around him. On the curved track in the 400-meter starting area, he was like a yellow lightning that could not be ignored!
Behind Zhang Ziyi is Bahrain's athlete Mike Knight.
Since last year's Asian Games, McKnight felt that Chinese athletes had changed.
Originally, he had only seen this athlete named 'Zhang' in the 400-meter sprint competition, and in his memory, Chinese athletes had never posed any threat to him.
However, after the second half of last year, not only did there appear more Chinese players in international competitions, but when he met Chinese players again in competitions, these players, whom he once ignored, were already in a completely different state from what he had imagined.
Can Chinese athletes actually pose a threat to him on the 400-meter track? !
After last year's Asian Games, McNight couldn't believe the result for a while.
During the off-season of last year's outdoor season, he also trained well. He originally thought that his condition was well adjusted, but now, the 'zhang' running on the track...
Damn it, he was sure this guy was getting faster again!
The physical reserves of Chinese players have always been inferior to theirs. This 'Zhang' must want to impact tomorrow's semi-finals and finals, but his speed is so fast now, is he going to give up tomorrow's game?
Of course that's impossible!
Then the only explanation is that this 'zhang's' current speed is far from his limit!
After this thought flashed through his mind, McKnight gritted his teeth and slightly adjusted his speed.
Damn it, damn it, he doesn't want to fall too far behind this Chinese player in the competition!
Far away in China, Su Bai was watching the men's 400m group 3 preliminaries on the live screen. He did not stop working, but quickly recorded some thoughts and data that flashed through his mind in the notebook in his hand.
More than a month before the Asian Championships, he had already started to conduct advanced training for Zhang Ziyi based on his situation. Although it has only been more than a month so far, combined with the training in the previous winter training phase, the entire training has gradually begun to show results in the growth of Zhang Ziyi's strength, explosive power and absolute speed.
What makes Su Bai most relieved is Zhang Ziyi's current sense of responsibility and calm attitude towards the game.
Zhang Ziyi always maintains his seriousness and respect for every game. He can feel the pressure, but he can also withstand it and regulate his competitive state under it - just like him on the court at this moment.
Zhang Ziyi on the field can already clearly feel the increase in his strength and explosive power. This increase in ability is directly reflected in the increase in his absolute speed.
Once, in the second 100-meter stage, which is theoretically the fastest, his speed range was only between 10.50 and 10.70 seconds. However, during this period of time, his speed in the second 100-meter stage has been steadily increasing, basically stabilizing in the range of 10.35 to 10.45 seconds.
According to the ideal data model of the four 100-meter stages that Su Bai established for him, he had fully met the athlete model with a target score of 44 seconds for 400 meters in the second stage, but he still lacked the ability to maintain high speed in the third and fourth stages.
Such a thought flashed through Zhang Ziyi’s mind, but his attention quickly returned to the field - now was not the time for him to be distracted and think about other things!
In the second 100-meter stage, most of which was on a straight track, the speed of each athlete increased significantly!
Not only Zhang Ziyi, but also McNight, Roger, Anans, Mustafa... each of these athletes is incredibly fast. The distance between the athletes who originally had a gap in front and behind is being quickly narrowed in this 100-meter stage!
Especially Artel who was on the 8th track, Mustafa who was on the 7th track not far behind him was constantly approaching him, and behind Mustafa, Zhang Ziyi and other top 400-meter athletes were eyeing him covetously!
They are all crazy!
This is just a preliminary round!
Although Mustafa was very confident in his own strength, he could still feel that the group of people behind him, who made him feel pressured, were approaching him just as he was approaching Atel.
Plop, plop.
The violent heartbeat was already beating violently in Mustafa's ears. The pressure brought to him by the group of people behind him made him even able to clearly hear his own nervous heartbeat.
This feeling of being chased by the sound of my heartbeat is really terrible.
Mustafa was trying hard to increase his stride, he needed to run faster - although he wanted to conserve more physical strength, but if he couldn't even advance to tomorrow's semi-final, then what was the point of retaining the physical strength now?
Even though he was confident that he could make it to the semi-finals after watching the first two preliminaries, with such an inhuman guy chasing him from behind, Mustafa suddenly became unconfident about his current speed.
So if you want to ensure your results, you have to go faster!
When entering the third 100-meter stage, Zhang Ziyi's physical condition was still maintained quite well. Although the instinctive reaction of lactic acid accumulation began to appear in his body, from the perspective of the audience, it can be seen that on the curve, Zhang Ziyi can still compete with the speed of several surrounding players while controlling his own speed rhythm.
In the Track and Field Kingdom forum, a quick track and field fan directly posted a post with only one sentence on his mobile phone:
Subject: [Oh my god, Zhang Shuai's speed and strength, although the game is not over yet, it feels like there has been a significant improvement! 】
This post has nothing in it except for the sentence in the title. Most of the track and field fans in the forum who are interested in the 400-meter event are watching the live broadcast of the game, so they naturally have no time to see this post.
However, some track and field fans who forgot to watch the live broadcast or thought the preliminaries were not important were also curious after seeing this sentence. They directly clicked on the sports channel live broadcast app on their mobile phones and happened to see the second half of the game.
During the live broadcast, the commentators Shao Minyi and Li Sen were also describing the changes on the field.
"Is Zhang Ziyi's stride longer than before? It is obvious that his overall posture on the court has become more relaxed. The longer stride makes him look more relaxed. Of course, on the court, this can also help him improve his physical stability."
"It can be seen that from the winter training stage to now, Zhang Ziyi has made great progress in strength training. Only when his special abilities are sufficiently trained can his stride length be improved..."
"Ah, Zhang Ziyi's cornering skills are still very good. McNight is trying to chase Zhang Ziyi in the corners, but Zhang Ziyi is very stable. He controls the speed and position relationship between him and McNight, and McNight fails!"
Not only were Shao Minyi and Li Sen in the commentary booth slightly nervous for a moment, but Pei Jinan and Jiang Wentao in the audience were also a little nervous.
On the track, McNight originally attempted to further shorten the gap between himself and Zhang Ziyi in the second corner, but he failed.
On the contrary, Zhang Ziyi was also chasing Roger and Annans in front of him on the bend.
The distance between these two Qatari and Indonesian athletes and Zhang Ziyi is already very close, but although their speed tends to decline in the third 100-meter stage, they also control their own rhythm and position very well - the race is approaching the last 100-meter stage, and no one wants to fall behind in this final stage.
When the contestants turned from the curve into the straight, their center of gravity, which was originally tilted towards the center of the curve, had been adjusted the moment they stepped into the straight. Everyone quickly switched themselves from the rhythm of running in the curve to the sprint mode of the last 100 meters!
At this stage, all the runners had only a little bit of physical strength left. After running fast for the first 300 meters, even if they had good control over their bodies and stamina, the instinctive soreness and heaviness in their bodies had already found them!
But no one will give up at this stage!
The moment we turned from the curve to the straight road, the strength and gap between the players on the track had already begun to take shape. Naturally, the three running in the front were Roger, Anans and Zhang Ziyi.
It should be said that these three people are worthy of being the champions, runners-up and third place winners of last year's Asian Games. From the beginning of this game to now, there have been no obvious mistakes among the three. Whether it is from the start, acceleration or overall rhythm, the three seem to be evenly matched.
However, everyone knows that this "equal strength" is just an illusion.
None of these three people has yet to show their true strengths. There are differences in speed among the three of them, but the distance between them is not that big. However, it can be seen from the audience that there is a clear gap between these three and the players behind them.
Now the speed of these three people seems like they have reached a certain level and then started to maintain a tacit understanding - within the scope of this tacit understanding, they are still competing with each other in speed, but no one can tell how much strength each of them has used.
Behind these three people, the closest to them was Mike Knight. The player from Bahrain was a little annoyed. He had already discovered the tacit understanding between the guys in front of him, and he also truly realized in his heart that his speed was much faster than those guys in front of him.
There is still a certain gap between them.
After that, Amankul from Kazakhstan and Mustafa from Iraq were in the third group. Their speeds were almost the same. Some distance behind them was Ater from Kyrgyzstan. This unlucky guy was as weak as a shivering lamb among a group of ferocious beasts. Not only was he unable to surpass the guys in front of him, but worse, because of nervousness and the real strength gap between him and other players after the opening, he couldn't even perform at his usual state.
Huh, huh, huh...!
In the last 100-meter sprint, Zhang Ziyi no longer controlled his speed. His upper body leaned forward slightly, and the amplitude and frequency of his arm swings also changed accordingly according to the final sprint.
At this final stage, the familiar stinging feeling when breathing has emerged again, but Zhang Ziyi's mind is very clear. He can clearly compare that compared with the past, his feeling of difficulty breathing has weakened now. He knows that this is because his own abilities have improved, and also because he has not yet fought to his limit in this competition.
In addition to the familiar breathing sounds and the heaviness of the limbs, in Zhang Ziyi's ears, the sound of his heartbeat was also so clear and warm!
Not only that, in the audience, in the Chinese contestant seats, and his Chinese teammate shouted loudly, "Come on, Ziyi!"
', 'Come on, Zhang Shuai.'
These familiar and enthusiastic cheers seemed to make his body surge with even more powerful energy, helping him to sprint forward at a faster speed!
…
Wait, no! This is not an illusion!
During this period of training, Su Bai had been telling him that the training was to improve his lactic acid tolerance, in preparation for improving his speed and endurance in the final stage of the race.
And now, when he has sprinted to the final stage, he can clearly feel the real improvement these abilities have brought him on the field!
Tap tap tap.
While Zhang Ziyi's stride length increased, his step frequency did not decrease much. This performance is particularly obvious in a competition like the current one.
While all the contestants seemed to be somewhat tired, Zhang Ziyi's step frequency and stride length made him the focus of attention for a while.
Anans and Roger, who were originally in a stalemate with Zhang Ziyi in terms of speed and position, clearly felt that Zhang Ziyi was sprinting at a speed beyond their expectations in this final stage!
In just a moment, the tacit understanding between the three was instantly broken.
Zhang Ziyi's speed suddenly increased again, and Anans and Roger were not to be outdone. They gave up the unnecessary restraint and started the final fight at the fastest speed!
However, before the two men took action, Zhang Ziyi's increased speed had already given him an advantage. In the last 50 meters, Zhang Ziyi had already surpassed both Anans and Roger!
The audience seats in the stadium started to become a little noisy. The audience who came to support Roger began to increase their cheers. In the seats for the Chinese players, the Chinese team members also began to shout Zhang Ziyi's name loudly to cheer him on!
In front of the TV, even though the audience knew that this was just a preliminary match, they still clenched their fists nervously.
come on! !
You must keep up the good work! ! !
Every spectator was nervously watching the changes on the field. No matter whether it was Zhang Ziyi, Anans or Roger, they were all fast enough. But how could Zhang Ziyi, who had the advantage of being one step ahead, be willing to give up his victory in the last 50 meters?
Therefore, in the last 50 meters of the race, no matter how hard Anans and Roger tried, they could not overtake Zhang Ziyi in front of them.
Finally, this preliminary round that was almost as exciting as the semi-finals finally came to an end.
In this preliminary round, Zhang Ziyi won the first place in this group with a score of 45.46.
In addition to Zhang Ziyi and three others, in this group of preliminaries, even Mustafa, who ranked sixth, had a score of 46.07. If such a result was placed in the first and second groups of the preliminaries, it would be enough for Mustafa to enter the top three.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
