The atmosphere in front of the TV for Lu Mengfan's semi-final was completely different from that for Cui Luoheng's match.
From the moment the preparation sounded, everyone's heart was in suspense.
In this semi-final, Lu Mengfan was in the third lane. On his right in the fourth lane was the French star Fabregas, and in the sixth lane was Vladimir, who still holds the world's best record this season.
In the live broadcast room of the sports channel, Shao Minyi was also reviewing Lu Mengfan's current technical improvement issues before the game.
"During this year's winter training, Lu Mengfan also made up his mind to improve his technique from eight steps before the hurdles to seven. He was able to run 13.26 seconds, and according to his interview before the Olympics, a large part of the reason was due to the improvement of his steps before the hurdles."
"However, Lu Mengfan also said that since he had been using the original eight-step attack technique for many years, he had to adjust and overcome the technical habits, as well as the long-term pressure on the ankles, Achilles tendons and other muscles, and get used to his original technical characteristics. The technical transformation from eight steps to seven steps before the hurdles was an adjustment and advantage for him, but it also increased the burden on his body."
"For now, he still needs some time to adapt to this technical transformation. His current state in the game also requires a certain amount of luck."
Shao Minyi mentioned these before the game mainly to make the audience more familiar with and understand Lu Mengfan's current personal condition, strengths and weaknesses.
From the perspective of Shao Minyi, Li Sen and the audience, they certainly hope that Lu Mengfan can make it to the finals. But regardless of whether he can advance or not, what Shao Minyi and Li Sen implied is that Lu Mengfan has poured in countless sweat to improve his strength, and it is an honor regardless of victory or defeat.
In the live broadcast room of the sports channel, this thought flashed through Shao Min's mind, and then in just a blink of an eye, his attention was quickly drawn back to the crisp sound of the starting gun.
“The game has started!!!”
Li Sen focused on the changes in rankings among the runners on the track on the screen in front of him. Unlike Cui Luoheng who was in the leading position and had great momentum from the start, Lu Mengfan's reaction to the starting gun was not slow, but his reaction time of 0.143 seconds only ranked him fourth in the group.
The fastest player in the reaction stage was not Vladimir or Fabregas, but McVries from Cyprus.
McVries's reaction time to the gun was only 0.124 seconds, followed by Fabregas at 0.133 seconds, and then Vladimir at 0.139 seconds.
Judging from the strength of the players on the field and the time it takes to react to the gunshot, it can be seen that Vladimir, who has absolute top strength in this group, did not sprint at full strength. In this semi-final, his overall game concept was in a relatively conservative state.
Including Jiang Wentao and others in the audience, when they saw Vladimir not showing a completely crushing posture on the field, their first reaction in their minds was that Vladimir ran very slowly and he just wanted to play it safe in this game.
However, even though Vladimir's condition had obviously slowed down, just as he was confident that he could still run conservatively in the semi-finals, the starting speed and condition of the players on the field still clearly told everyone - even if Vladimir ran conservatively, he would still be the first in this game.
On the track, McVries, who had an excellent start, completely and firmly caught up with the leading group led by Vladimir in the pre-hurdle stage.
In the stage before the hurdles, Vladimir, Fabregas, McVries and Lu Mengfan were in a relatively advantageous position from the naked eye.
However, the advantage in the pre-hurdle stage is only a distance of more than ten meters. From the transition from the pre-hurdle to the first hurdle, the start of the hurdle attack phase also begins to further screen the strength rankings among the players on the field!
From reacting to the gunshot to bursting into the start, Lu Mengfan could feel that his overall performance in the starting stage was relatively smooth. The seven-step hurdle attack compared to the eight-step hurdle attack, at least has the advantage of the number of steps and the advantage of the sprint state brought by the downward pressure of the upper body, which can enable him to complete the offensive transition from the start to the first hurdle attack more smoothly.
The first few hurdles stages were originally Lu Mengfan's advantageous stage. After the technical adjustment from eight to seven before the hurdles, his advantage and speed in this stage became more obvious - this was also an important reason why he was able to follow closely the first group in the first half of the race.
On the second track to the left of Lu Mengfan was the Greek runner Krakachi, who clearly made a mistake in the starting phase. His reaction time was 0.177 seconds, which was a reaction time that was clearly in a state of error. What was worse was that during the explosive start, his right foot obviously sprained in the first three steps of the start. Although he adjusted quickly, he made a mistake in the starting phase after making a mistake in the reaction phase. The direct result was that Krakachi had basically locked in defeat.
However, the athlete from Greece was not willing to accept the defeat he faced. He still insisted on attacking the hurdles with all his strength, but there was obviously some anxiety in his mentality, and this anxiety was directly reflected in his performance on the field.
From the first stage of attacking the hurdles, Krakachi began to hit the hurdles uncontrollably, especially when he was attacking the third hurdle, Krakachi even directly knocked down the hurdles on his track.
A mistake of this magnitude finally made him completely lose the mood to continue the competition. He looked up in pain, turned around to look at the fallen hurdle behind him, and stopped.
When Krakaqi knocked down the third hurdle, Lu Mengfan had actually finished attacking the hurdle first and was running towards the fourth hurdle. However, Krakaqi's track was closely connected with Lu Mengfan after all, and Lu Mengfan could still clearly notice the fallen hurdle behind him even though he was in the competition.
"Oh no! The Greek runner on the second track knocked down his hurdles, which will definitely have a certain impact on Lu Mengfan on the third track!"
Shao Minyi did not expect that Lu Mengfan, who had been running smoothly in the first three hurdles, would encounter such an accident at this stage.
However, the situation on the field is changing rapidly. It is fortunate that Krakachi's condition did not cause him any harm. However, in this case... will Lu Mengfan's performance be affected?
On the track, the sound of the hurdle falling and the movement of Krakachi from the left rear did reach Lu Mengfan's ears. Of course, not only Lu Mengfan, but Fabregas on the fourth track also heard the sound from behind.
As top hurdlers, they are already very familiar with various unexpected situations encountered on the field. Whether it is Fabregas or Lu Mengfan, as long as they are on the track, they are mentally prepared to remain unchanged in the face of changes.
The sound of the hurdles falling made them nervous for only a moment, but this moment of nervousness was quickly forgotten by them!
In the audience, Jiang Wentao looked at Lu Mengfan who was still moving steadily forward to attack the hurdle, and couldn't help but shout "good"!
This was an instinctive reaction after seeing Lu Mengfan successfully survive the impact of the collapsed hurdles on the Krakachi track.
However, Su Bai, who was also standing and watching the game, frowned - Lu Mengfan did seem to be not too affected by Krakachi, but it was just an appearance.
Including Fabregas, the two of them were closest to the Krakachi track, so they were the most affected. From the close-up shots on the big screen at the scene, Su Bai had already discovered that both Lu Mengfan and Fabregas had restrained their movements in the following hurdle attacks and no longer pursued extreme technical moves.
This is an instinctive human reaction of seeking good and avoiding danger. They may not even realize that they are trying to be careful not to have a serious fence-breaking situation like the one in Krakachi.
This reaction cannot be said to be wrong, but at this moment in the Olympic semi-finals, if they were a little more cautious, the chances of other players... would be a little greater.
On the track, McVries, who seemed to be slightly behind Fabregas, reversed the trend when entering the hurdle stage of the seventh hurdle, and surpassed Fabregas by half a body length. Lu Mengfan, who was originally in a stalemate with McVries for the third place, also fell to fourth place in the field as McVries overtook him.
At this point, the race was already halfway through, and although Lu Mengfan was still trying his best to attack the hurdles, his most advantageous stage had passed, and he eventually fell to fourth place, and was unable to overtake until the finish line.
After all the athletes crossed the finish line, the audience in front of the TV suddenly realized what was happening - the semi-final of the 110-meter hurdles was over, but Lu Mengfan was only in fourth place.
This was a race that gave people a feeling of "starting strong but ending weak". In the first half of the race, the competition between Vladimir, Fabregas, Lu Mengfan and McVries was extremely fierce and exciting. However, after Krakachi knocked down the hurdle in the middle, Lu Mengfan and Fabregas, who seemed unaffected, were ultimately restricted by their instincts.
With Lu Mengfan and Fabregas both in somewhat limited form, Vladimir and McVries easily crossed the finish line in first and second place.
In the live broadcast room of the domestic sports channel, Shao Minyi and Li Sen both fell into a brief silence after seeing the result, and then spoke again.
"...I have to say, this was a somewhat regrettable match." Shao Min shook his head. "Although during the match, Lu Mengfan and Fabregas's stable mental qualities allowed them to avoid mistakes like Krakachi's, but from the second half of the match, it was obvious that the speed of both Lu Mengfan and Fabregas was unconsciously affected."
On the field, it was only after Lu Mengfan actually crossed the finish line that he finally realized that in the second half of the race he did not dare to let go and attack the hurdles to the limit as he did in the opening stage. However, at this moment, the game was over, and he could only end it regretfully with a feeling of loss.
In the audience, Jiang Wentao, who had shouted "good" not long ago, was stunned for a moment when he saw the result, then wiped his face and sighed slightly.
"It's a pity about Lu Mengfan..." Jiang Wentao sighed, but didn't know what else to say.
After all, Lu Mengfan's advancement was originally hovering on the dangerous dividing line. In fact, they had already prepared themselves mentally, but after seeing the accident of Krakachi on the field, they couldn't help but have some other thoughts in their minds. For example, if there had been no such accident, would Lu Mengfan have been able to run third and have a chance to compete for the qualification for advancement?
The Chinese team members and domestic audiences at the scene all felt a little lost at this moment. After everyone was in a daze for a moment, the final results of the third group of the semi-finals were announced.
Final results of the third group of the Tokyo Olympics 110m hurdles semi-finals:
First place: Vladimir (neutral), 13.15 seconds, wind speed +0.9m/s;
Second place: McFlurry (Cyprus), 13.2 seconds, wind speed +0.9m/s;
Third place: Fabregas (France), 13.33 seconds, wind speed +0.9m/s;
Fourth place: Lu Mengfan (China), 13.3 seconds, wind speed +0.9m/s;
Fifth place: …
…
After the final results were announced, the audience finally gave up the little hope that remained in their hearts and accepted the result with regret.
After the semi-finals of the 110-meter hurdles, the morning's schedule related to the Chinese team also ended. On the way back to the Olympic Village, the atmosphere among the Chinese team members seemed rather restrained.
Everyone knew that Lu Mengfan seemed a little aggrieved in the semi-final this morning because of the accident, and no one in the car was good at comforting people, so everyone could only pat Lu Mengfan on the shoulder, then be quiet and let Lu Mengfan digest this unhappy result by himself.
Fortunately, Lu Mengfan himself is an athlete with a relatively mature mentality. He did not carry too much regret on the field into after the game. He did feel regretful in today's game, but being able to reach the Olympic semi-finals was already a result that made him happy.
On the bus back to the Chinese Building in the Olympic Village, Lu Mengfan had adjusted his mindset and took out his phone to send a Weibo post:
Lu Mengfan: [It is an honor enough to be able to participate in the Olympic Games. In today's semi-final, my mentality is still not stable enough. In future training and competitions, I will continue to maintain a good mentality and keep working hard! 】
On the bus, some people were also browsing Weibo and soon saw the content of the Weibo post published by Lu Mengfan. After seeing this Weibo post, people on the bus turned around and said "come on" to Lu Mengfan one after another. With Lu Mengfan's smiling reply, the atmosphere on the bus, which was originally a bit dull in the morning, gradually relaxed.
After the morning competition ended, Su Bai returned to the Olympic Village and first looked at the group list for the women's 400m semi-finals in the evening sent by the organizer.
The first thing Su Bai did when he got the list was to take a look at the group related to Chen Yada - fortunately, Chen Yada was not in the same group as Nasser of the Kingdom of Bahrain in today's semi-finals.
In the women's 400-meter sprint semi-final tonight, Chen Yada's group was relatively evenly matched, which was a lucky thing. But even so, for Chen Yada, tonight's game was by no means easy.
After lunch in the afternoon, Su Bai found Chen Yada as usual, but today, when he found Chen Yada, Su Bai also found Zhang Ziyi who had finished lunch with Chen Yada.
Su Bai originally thought that in this scene which was like a 'caught in the act', Zhang Ziyi would at least blush and get nervous for a bit, but he didn't expect that Zhang Ziyi would just cover his mouth and cough dryly, and then follow Chen Yada into Su Bai's temporary meeting room.
?
? ?
When Su Bai turned around and saw Zhang Ziyi also followed into the meeting room, he was really surprised. However, Chen Yada turned around and glanced at Zhang Ziyi. Then, the captain of the men's 400-meter sprint team, known as 'Zhang Shuai', who was very steady in front of others, nodded with a steady expression, turned around and left the meeting room.
Seeing the two of them like this, Su Bai was in a rare state of not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Well, actually it wouldn't matter if Zhang Ziyi came in to listen, but Su Bai had never seen the mature and steady Zhang Ziyi behave like he did today, so he did find it a little interesting.
After Zhang Ziyi left the meeting room, Su Bai directly handed the grouping form to Chen Yada.
Players like Zhang Ziyi and Chen Yada are already very mature in their mentality towards the game and even their attitude towards each game.
Just like Chen Yada, although it has not been announced to the public, she had actually submitted her retirement application before the Olympics.
As a 28-year-old female sprinter, she has passed her golden age. However, in the past few years, she has been able to make continuous breakthroughs and progress, and even stepped onto the Olympic arena. For Chen Yada herself, these are things she had never thought of in the past.
Since the start of the Tokyo Olympics, Chen Yadan has been treating every game as if it were her last Olympic game.
In the competition.
This is especially true for the upcoming semi-final.
After giving Chen Yada the grouping table, Su Bai also handed her a list of Chen Yada's opponents and a series of data analysis forms for her opponents that he had prepared.
For a contestant like Chen Yada, she is fully capable of analyzing the data on her own, not to mention that Su Bai has also conducted corresponding focused analysis on the data.
After handing all the documents to Chen Yadan, Su Bai looked at Chen Yadan who had taken the documents, and finally said with a smile: "Good luck."
After Chen Yadan took over the documents that Su Bai had carefully prepared, he looked at Su Bai and nodded seriously: "Coach, don't worry, I will."
——This might be the last game of her professional career. How can she be worthy of herself if she doesn’t give it her all?
After watching Chen Yada take the documents, turn around and say goodbye and leave the meeting room, Su Bai looked at Chen Yada who opened the door of the meeting room, and Zhang Ziyi who had been guarding the door, and finally couldn't help but smile.
"Zi Yi."
As Zhang Ziyi and Chen Yadan were about to leave, Su Bai smiled and glanced at the captain of the men's team: "Don't forget your own game."
Zhang Ziyi, who had seemed somewhat relaxed, immediately straightened his expression after hearing this, and nodded seriously, "Of course!"
After the afternoon break, the Chinese team once again boarded their dedicated bus and headed to the competition venue at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
The two players in the evening match, Chen Yada and Wu Yi, had already closed their eyes to rest in the car. On the bus to the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, everyone became quiet again. However, this was not the dullness on the return journey at noon. Instead, everyone was consciously lowering their voices to allow Chen Yada and Wu Yi to better adjust their mental state.
Among the two races in the evening, the men's 200-meter sprint final was undoubtedly the finale scheduled at the last time, while the women's 400-meter sprint semi-final was scheduled earlier.
After the bus arrived at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, everyone cheered for Chen Yada and Wu Yi, and then watched them go to the athlete preparation room in the backcourt.
In China, after the evening live broadcast of the Olympic track and field competition began, many track and field fans had already been squatting in front of their TVs or computers, ready to wait for the competition to begin.
In the live broadcast room of the sports channel, although Lu Mengfan's performance in the 110-meter hurdles race in the morning was a bit disappointing, in the evening, track and field fans regained their spirits and waited to cheer for Chen Yada and Wu Yi in the evening's race!
[Sister Dan, Sister Dan! Ah, I wonder if Sister Dan can make it to the final of the women's 400-meter sprint in the competition later? 】
【_(:3)∠】_Alas, the women's 400m sprint final is still a bit difficult. To qualify, you have to run under 51 seconds. Dan's current PB is only 51.34 seconds, so there is still a big gap. 】
[You can’t say that?] When you watched the men's 400-meter sprint, everyone said the same thing, but I don't need to tell you how much Zhang Shuai and Erha's data have improved, right? 】
[Emm, although it may sound a bit cruel, Erha's talent is really beyond words. Zhang Shuai has also been constantly refreshing his PB in the past year or so. To be honest, there are traces of their improvement, but Sister Dan is still a little short...]
[Oh, let’s not talk about Sister Dan, but speaking of which, I wonder how Wu Yi will perform in the 200m final! 】
In the public screen chat content of the live broadcast room, whether it is track and field fans or passers-by who just come to watch the game, after this period of running-in, they have gained a deeper understanding of the athletes and track and field events.
Everyone has a clear idea of how rare these two games tonight are - whether it is the women's 400-meter sprint semi-final or the men's 200-meter sprint final, this is unprecedented in the history of Chinese track and field.
With anticipation for these two games, everyone is eagerly waiting for the official start of the game tonight!
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