Unlike the preliminaries, semi-finals or some track and field events, the organizers of the Doha World Championships have designed separate appearance scenes for the finals of almost every competition event.
After the on-site broadcast announced that the men's 400m final was about to begin, the ceiling lights in the audience seats were quickly turned off, and the only light source around the audience was a dim floor lamp in front of each seat.
All the lights in the stadium were turned off. Soon, 10 light strips were lit on the track. These light strips were buried on the edges of the 9 circular tracks in the stadium. These light strips lit up with a regular breathing pattern, illuminating the entire stadium with flickering lights.
As the breathing lights came on, cheers were heard from the audience - the contestants for the men's 400-meter sprint final were about to take the stage!
Sure enough, after a series of brief flashes of breathing light, the concierge opened the door to the decorated special entrance for the final athletes, and as the most gorgeous colored lights came on, the first contestant in the men's 400m final appeared!
During the live broadcast, the local commentator in Doha was also introducing the first man to appear in the men's 400m sprint final - Fraser from Jamaica - in a high-spirited voice.
"Let us welcome the first player to appear on the stage - Fraser from Jamaica!" After the excited long note, there was an introduction to Fraser's career and the results of the preliminaries and semi-finals of this World Championships.
In China, Shao Minyi was also introducing Fraser's situation: "This 400m star from Jamaica performed quite well in the preliminaries and semifinals of this World Championships. He finished the preliminaries at 45.01 seconds and the semifinals at 44.66 seconds. He advanced to the finals quite easily."
Fraser was placed in the second lane in tonight's final, which was not a very advantageous position.
After Fraser came on stage, the remaining seven finalists also came on stage one after another. They were Tekau from Trinidad and Tobago, Jipuluto from Kenya, Hernandez from the United States, Le Clos from South Africa, Gardenel from the Bahamas, Morris from Grenada and Zhang Ziyi from China.
In this stage ceremony, almost every contestant had 1 minute to appear and be introduced. By the time all 8 contestants appeared on stage, more than 10 minutes had passed.
When each contestant came on stage, the light strips of the contestant's track would light up at the same time. When Zhang Ziyi came on stage, the light strip of the ninth track lit up. The audience in front of the TV sighed slightly, but still watched the live broadcast on TV seriously, and silently cheered for Zhang Ziyi in their hearts.
In the semi-finals, Zhang Ziyi ran a new PB of 44.81 seconds, but this result, which was close to the 400-meter record of the yellow race, only allowed Zhang Ziyi to barely win second place among the remaining players and enter the final.
His semi-final result ranked last among the eight contestants, so it was a very normal result that he was drawn to the ninth track.
Under the bright spotlights, Zhang Ziyi smiled and waved to the audience, then followed the guidance of the etiquette staff and walked towards the starting line of track nine.
Behind him on the left side, in lane eight, was Tekawu from Trinidad and Tobago, and in lane seven was Kipuruto from Kenya. Coincidentally, these two were the first and second place winners in his group in the semi-finals.
Hernandez and Le Clos, the two top players in control flow, are on tracks 6 and 3 respectively, while tracks 4 and 5 are Gardenel from the Bahamas and Morris from Grenada.
When all eight contestants were in place, the lights at the special entrance where the contestants would appear were completely turned off. In the huge stadium, the lights were still not all on. Only the light strips on the nine tracks flashed a specially customized light show under the attention of the audience.
On the circular track, a special virtual projection was projected onto the track, combined with a show composed of light strips. Music full of Qatari local style resounded throughout the venue, and on the track were 8 light figures surging like waves, circling the circular track. Finally, the light strips went out, and the ground lights on the track lit up one by one. Under the special design, the lights only illuminated the complete 400-meter track, and the area outside the track was still dark, which forced the audience in the auditorium to focus their attention on this track and watch this men's 400-meter sprint battle that can be said to be the world's top.
In China, some of the audience who were watching this game, who had never watched the World Championships before, were stunned by the organizers' cool introduction and performance of the players.
【_(:3)∠】_I'm so stupid. I thought athletes in sports competitions appeared very plain. What's going on tonight? I was stunned. 】
【Um? Didn’t you watch the men’s 100m final? Yu Ge's appearance in that match was also very charming. This is now the normal routine for World Championship finalists to appear on stage. 】
[I was passing by this on the way to eat melons, and this appearance was so sexy that I thought I had accidentally walked into a talent show. But you know what, it was really pretty! 】
Those who are in the mood to post comments and chat on the public screen at this moment are all relatively carefree. Even if most track and field fans already have a 90% guess in their minds, they are still so nervous that their hands are sweating. They sit in front of the TV and don't even have the mood to read the comments.
During the 800-meter final, Huang Yiluan's small group of die-hard fans of the 400-meter sprint were still chatting with each other. Of course, they were not talking about the content of the competition. They were a group of big men who had been excited since they woke up in the daytime, and were anxiously waiting for the evening's competition to start.
When the evening competition really started, as one event after another progressed, they were less and less willing to mention anything related to the evening competition in the group.
Huang Yiluan didn't know what Lao Ma and the others in his group did when they were nervous. Anyway, he was following the rich track and field fan [大圣跑得快] on Weibo who bought a hot search to apologize to Su Bai because of his bad mouth. This guy donated countless 44.80 yuan to the Weibo charity project today.
Of course, the Monkey King is not as fast as Qiu Wen, the funny idiot. He did not choose to post his donation on Weibo at the same time. The reason why Huang Yiluan knew about it was purely because he also chose to donate to seek peace of mind.
Then, on the real-time donation feed for that charity project, I saw a whole row of names belonging to 'The Great Sage Runs Fast'.
…
…………
Well, ever since Fang Yu's donation and the subsequent donation by that silly boy Qiu Wen, track and field fans have regarded this as a kind of psychological comfort for seeking peace of mind, especially the charity project donated by Huang Yiluan, because the earliest fan donated to Fang Yu, and later Qiu Wen donated here, so he has become a "net celebrity" in the charity project.
Huang Yiluan's mind was full of random thoughts, just to distract himself from the stress and tension, but when Shao Minyi's voice on TV said, "The game is about to start," he was so nervous that his breathing stopped.
Let’s get started!
At the scene, all eight contestants have taken their positions on their respective tracks.
Among these eight players, Zhang Ziyi undoubtedly had the worst result. Apart from him, the worst PB of the remaining players was 44.51 seconds, which was a full 0.3 seconds away from his 44.81 seconds.
Thinking of this gap, Huang Yiluan felt a little depressed, but then he looked at the remaining seven players on the track except Zhang Ziyi - all black players.
Yes, in this 400m final, except for Zhang Ziyi, the rest were all black athletes, not even a single white athlete.
This is a field completely occupied by the racial talents of black players, and Zhang Ziyi is the only different color in this black.
"No matter what, the fact that Zhang Ziyi can stand here as a Chinese player and an Asian player is already a victory and a miracle!"
Shao Minyi looked at the situation on the field with emotion and said, "In the previous preliminaries and semi-finals, Zhang Ziyi used his amazing speed to bridge the gap between Asians and these black players. As the first yellow man standing on this track, he is the pride of all of us!"
Of course!
The audience in front of the TV all had the same response in their hearts.
In the semi-finals the day before yesterday, although they knew that Zhang Ziyi was the first yellow person to enter the finals, it was only a mental shock. Until today, after seeing the full crowd of black players in the finals with their own eyes, this visual shock made them more deeply aware of how powerful Zhang Ziyi is and what a great thing he has accomplished!
Doha Stadium, match scene
Zhang Ziyi squatted on the starting line. Due to the special setting of the light strips on site, he could not see other areas of the stadium except the 400-meter track. He was in the ninth lane and there were no runners in front of him. As far as he could see, there was only a dazzling light, and in this light was the 400-meter track he was familiar with.
This was Zhang Ziyi's first time competing on such a track. He had clearly participated in a preliminaries and a semi-final on this track. Earlier, he had also raced on this track during the Asian Championships.
But at this moment, under the light, everything seemed so familiar and strange.
The audience was very excited. Their excited voices were a little noisy, making the track in front of Zhang Ziyi, which gave him a sense of dream, more real.
This is the track for the men's 400m sprint final of the World Championships.
This is his track!
When he thought of this, Zhang Ziyi closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and focused all his attention on the game in front of him.
"No matter what, just don't leave any regrets."
In his mind, he remembered the words Su Bai said to him in the morning.
"You tried your best in the semi-finals. You didn't want to lose heart in the finals and end the game so casually, right?"
These are what Chen Yada said to him when she passed by him shortly before leaving.
He certainly didn't fight hard to get here just to end this final casually, so the way to avoid any regrets is of course... to do his best now and fight one more time!
At the scene, the audience quieted down following the broadcast's prompts. On the track, the eight athletes had already taken their respective starting positions on the curved track.
Calm and clear commands began to be heard on the radio.
"Everyone, take your positions."
"preparation."
And then...
"Bang!"
“The game… begins!!”
Li Sen loudly announced the official start of the race, and after the race began, eight figures on the track had turned into eight dazzling meteors in the lights.
"Zhang Ziyi's start was very stable, very good, keep it up!" Shao Minyi's voice was filled with obvious nervousness. He emphasized: "Zhang Ziyi is now in the ninth lane. He needs to control his physical energy distribution. He can't just run blindly because there are no other runners in front of him at the start."
After all, Zhang Ziyi is not Qiu Wen. He does not have the same extreme physical energy supply ability as Qiu Wen. At the same time, he is not like Qiu Wen, who seriously lacks control and understanding of his own rhythm.
His start was steady and fast. Although he did not have the crazy momentum of a ferocious beast in the semi-finals, his start today was filled with a sense of determination that came from the heart.
In today's game, he was not competing with other players on the field, he was competing with himself to see how fast he could reach!
On the track, as usual, the fastest runners were not Hernandez and Le Clos, the two players who controlled the flow. Instead, the ones who rushed the most fiercely at the start were Gardener from the Bahamas and Fraser from Jamaica.
Fraser started at the back of all the runners, but his explosive acceleration at the start was the most powerful. After the first bend, he closed the distance of almost 3 meters to Le Clos in front of him.
Zhang Ziyi, who was at the front, was also facing the same situation. Behind him, Tekawu of Trinidad and Tobag was also chasing him fiercely at the start. However, Tekawu's condition today did not seem to be as good as on the day of the semi-final. After an obviously fierce pursuit, he did not pose much threat to Zhang Ziyi.
After the first bend, Zhang Ziyi was still at the front of the track. After all, there was a big gap in the distance between him and other players behind him. It was not so easy for the players behind him to overtake him at this stage.
But after entering the first straight track, from the perspective of the audience seats and the camera, it can be seen that Gardenel, who was in the fifth track, was much faster than the other players around him on the straight.
This athlete from the Bahamas was in great shape today. On the fifth track, he relied on his superhuman absolute speed to run the 400-meter straight track with the momentum of a 100-meter run!
In the commentary booth, Shao Minyi's voice was also a little surprised: "This Gardiner, his segment speed at this stage should have exceeded 100 meters in 10 seconds!"
Gardenell's speed was so fierce that even when approaching the second turn, it brought pressure to Hernandez in the sixth lane ahead of him, making this top master of control flow seem to start calculating and releasing a speed beyond the original plan.
When reaching the second bend, Tekawu, who originally tried to get close to Zhang Ziyi, failed to successfully pull Zhang Ziyi behind him by relying on the obvious advantage of the second bend, and the relationship between him and Zhang Ziyi entered a stalemate stage of infinite closeness.
On the contrary, Jipuruto in the seventh lane was still in good condition. At this stage, relying on the advantage of the inner lane of the seventh lane, he had already rushed ahead of Zhang Ziyi.
In the innermost lane of the second track, after a fierce burst at the start, Jamaica's Fraser had already rushed into the front half after the 200-meter stage. However, after reaching the last straight track, Fraser was unable to truly take the first place.
At this time, there was a relatively clear dividing line on the track, with Gardenell, Hernandez, Fraser and Le Clos in the first group sprinting.
The second group was led by Gipruto. Zhang Ziyi and Tekawu were almost the same speed. Behind them was Morris from Grenada. His condition today was obviously not very good. He could only barely come in last place, still a short distance away from Zhang Ziyi and Tekawu.
On the track, although it was still in the Doha Stadium with a powerful circulating refrigeration system, the speed competition and mutual stimulation between the athletes, and the athletes' struggle to chase forward step by step on the track made this area seem as if it was under the scorching sun, extremely hot!
Huff, huff…
It is the feeling of the hot air being sucked into the throat, it is the excitement of constantly sprinting forward with only the end of the track and your own goal in front of you!
Run!
Rush forward, this is your pursuit of the limit.
This is...his desire to surpass himself and exceed his limits!
"Zhang Ziyi! Zhang Ziyi is currently in sixth place! He has left Tekawu behind!"
"Great! Keep it up!"
"He is sprinting forward, trying to get closer to Gipruto in front! The last 50 meters! The distance between him and Gipruto is very close, there is hope!!!"
Shao Min looked at the picture on the screen, and didn't care at all that sweat from his forehead dripped into the corners of his eyes. He, Li Sen, and millions of viewers in front of the TV were all staring at Zhang Ziyi on the track.
Overtake?
Or failure?
Sixth place? Fifth place?
The last 50 meters of the race made everyone feel very tense...
40 meters, 30 meters...
"It's tied! Can we successfully overtake?!"
Shao Minyi's voice was hoarse and nervous, making everyone's scalp tingle. Then everyone's eyes were closely following Zhang Ziyi, watching him and Jipuruto overtake and... overtake again in the last 30 meters.
In the end, Zhang Ziyi crossed the finish line in sixth place.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
