Didn’t it say that the players would lose confidence because of their previous defeat against the American players?
Track and field fans were still a little confused until they watched the two preliminary matches of Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi in the morning.
Huang Yiluan is just an ordinary track and field enthusiast, and he is also one of the people who have criticized Su Bai the most harshly in recent times.
This is not to say that track and field fans like Huang Yiluan are hoping that their national team's athletes will perform poorly, but according to common sense, the athletes' competitive psychology will definitely be affected after that round of impact, and Su Bai's wrong decision may also lead to poor communication of Su Bai's coaching and training instructions for a period of time afterwards.
As bystanders, track and field fans looked at Su Bai's actions and the actual results at the time from a third-party perspective, and of course they would think that Su Bai's judgment in the choice he made was problematic.
But……
He clearly made the wrong choice and action, so why did he get a positive response?
This can't be a case of two negatives equaling a positive, right?
Sitting in front of the computer, Huang Yiluan, this tough guy, was also a little confused.
Just as Huang Yiluan was sitting in front of the computer in a daze, a sentence suddenly floated across the public screen in the live broadcast room.
[Friends, what do you think...in the previous interview, is it possible that what Su Bai said was all the truth? 】
The truth?
Huang Yiluan saw this and quickly reviewed what Su Bai said during the interview on the sports channel that day...
[Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi’s goal is to reach the 400m final? 】
[The 4*400m relay team’s goal is to win a medal in the relay race? 】
Thinking of this, Huang Yiluan's face became serious. If this could come true, and he was asked to shoot an apology video and buy a hot repost, he would be willing to do it!
In addition to public discussion forums such as the Track and Field Kingdom Forum, track and field fans also have some private discussion groups. For example, Huang Yilu has joined several track and field related discussion groups, and the groups are currently discussing the results of Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi in the preliminaries.
Lao Yong doesn’t want to run: [What’s going on? Are Xiao Qiu and Zhang Shuai in good shape for today's 400m preliminaries? This is Zhang Shuai's first goal of the season in 46 seconds, right? Is it higher than his sb last season? 】
A horse doesn’t eat grass: [Have you all watched the live broadcast? Damn, I was shocked after watching it just now, Xiao Qiu is really good, it's been less than one season and he has already rushed to under 46.10 seconds? It should be safe to break the 46-second mark next season, right? It's not just Xiao Qiu, Zhang Shuai also raced. And I saw that both Zhang Shuai and Xiao Qiu looked quite relaxed. I guess these two didn't run at full speed, right? 】
This small group called "Sprinting Heroes" was formed by Huang Yiluan and several friends who love sprinting to chat and exchange information. They talk about everything from sprinting to life, and they can be considered to be good friends.
Huang Yiluan and several friends in the group were very angry after Su Bai had an incident during a practice match when he just joined the national team a few days ago. They had originally lost hope for the 400m event in this Asian Games because of this incident, but then the news of Su Bai's interview two days ago made them furious again. They planned to see the results of Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi in the preliminaries today. If they were not in good shape, they would go to Su Bai's Weibo and criticize him.
Who would have thought that after the morning game, the scene would be like this?
After reading the chat records in the group, Huang Yiluan hesitated and joined the conversation.
Huang is a serious Huang: [Brothers, tell me, have we misunderstood Su Bai? Will it? He asked American players to have practice matches with the national team. Wasn't it to let the national team players win easily and gain confidence for the competition? So the American players didn't cause any mental damage to the players of our national team at that time? 】
Huang Yiluan shared the news with the group, and there was silence for a few seconds.
After a while, a group member named Lao Yong complained quietly: "...If it wasn't for the sake of letting our players win easily, could it be that they deliberately let those American players bully the weaker players?"
…………
…
Okay.
Lao Yong's words immediately killed Huang Yiluan's possible guess in the bud. After all, Lao Yong was right. If the purpose of inviting American players to compete in China was to let them bully the weaker ones, that would be too unreasonable.
No one in this small group knew about it, and they just let go of the truth that was within their grasp.
After the morning game, both Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi were in good shape.
There is no need to talk about Qiu Wen. It was his first time participating in an international competition. He was fearless like a newborn calf. There was no one in his group who could beat him. He easily won first place in the group preliminaries.
Zhang Ziyi had even more feelings in his heart.
He is also a veteran in international competitions. Although he did not participate in the last Incheon Asian Games, he still has some experience in previous Asian Championships and some Asian invitational tournaments.
In past competitions, he felt more uncertain. For him, the only thing he didn't have to worry about was the preliminaries, but even in the preliminaries, he could usually only get second or third place in the group.
After passing the preliminaries, the pressure on him will increase sharply, because if he wants to break into the finals, it often means that he must be able to run at his peak throughout the year in the finals.
The expectations from his leaders and coaches, the expectations from track and field fans, his own unwillingness to give up the desire to win and the doubts about his own abilities, all weigh heavily on Zhang Ziyi's mind.
But this time the game was different.
Zhang Ziyi couldn't tell what the real difference was, but the mentality that "I seem to be weaker than others but dare not admit it" had disappeared in this competition.
In today's preliminaries, Zhang Ziyi felt that he was running more easily than ever before. He had not yet sprinted at full strength, but he had already won first place in the group in the preliminaries and ran a time of 45.89 seconds, a result that would have been enough to excite him in the past.
After Zhang Ziyi and Qiu Wen returned to the Chinese team's seating area after the game, team members such as Guo Dun and Zhou Xu were also very happy. When they saw the two coming back, they came up and gave them a big hug.
When Zhang Ziyi and Qiu Wen arrived in front of Su Bai, Jiang Wentao, who was sitting next to Su Bai, had already praised them.
"Well done, both of you were in great shape in today's preliminaries. Keep up the good work in tonight's semifinals and try to make it to the finals!"
Hearing Jiang Wentao's words, Qiu Wenxian raised his head and straightened his chest: "That's no problem, we will definitely work hard to get a place in the finals tonight!"
Zhang Ziyi, who was standing next to him, saw Qiu Wen's expression and was suddenly in a state of confusion: "Xiao Qiu, don't just say that. It won't be easy to get a place in the finals tonight."
Qiu Wen was stunned for a moment when he heard Zhang Ziyi's words. He turned his head and looked at him. He immediately understood that this was Zhang Ziyi's humble statement. However, he himself did not have any burden of being modest or not. He scratched his head and grinned at Su Bai and said, "Xiaobai, don't forget our midnight snack when we make it to the finals tonight!"
Before Su Bai could reply, Jiang Wentao next to him laughed and scolded: "Xiao Qiu, you keep talking about midnight snacks. If people knew about it, they would think the national team was abusing you and not giving you food!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone around started laughing.
The afternoon competition had nothing to do with Su Bai and the others. After having lunch in the Asian Games Village, Zhang Ziyi and Qiu Wen went back to their dormitories for a nap. The massage therapist of the Chinese team in the Asian Games Village also gave them massages to adjust their conditions, trying to help them recover their physical strength so that they could face the semi-finals in better competitive condition in the evening.
The evening's 400m semi-finals were divided into three groups, with eight athletes in each group. In the afternoon, the list of groups for the semi-finals had reached the coaching staff of the national track and field team, and the list was also published on the Internet.
From this competition list, we can see that Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi are still separated and not arranged in the same group. Zhang Ziyi is in the first group of the semi-finals and Qiu Wen is in the third group of the semi-finals.
Among the 24 contestants in these three groups, only the top two contestants in each group and the top two contestants in the overall ranking among the remaining contestants will advance to the finals.
Compared to the preliminaries in the morning where only 6 players were eliminated, the difficulty of advancing to the finals in the 400m semi-finals in the evening can be said to have more than doubled.
If we say that in the morning preliminaries, many players ran relatively relaxed because there were plenty of qualifying spots, then in the evening semi-finals, it can be said that everyone was ready to go, waiting to show down the winner in the semi-finals.
At 8:30 in the evening, the 400-meter semi-final had entered the final preparation stage. Unlike the morning preliminary round live broadcast where only Li Sen was responsible for the commentary, Shao Minyi and Li Sen competed at the same time in the evening semi-final. Judging from the number of viewers in the live broadcast room, it can be seen that the attention to this evening game is several times higher than that of the preliminaries.
Track and field fans who were paying attention to the semi-finals at this time already knew the preliminary results of Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi. Before the game started, the public screen was filled with comments of regret from track and field fans, who thought that if Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi could keep their excellent form from the morning preliminaries until the evening, they would have surely made it to the finals tonight.
Not only netizens feel this way, Shao Minyi and Li Sen also expressed some regret when they talked about this.
"In this morning's men's 400m preliminaries, our athletes Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi both performed exceptionally well, running a personal best of 46.09 seconds and a season best of 45.89 seconds respectively. From the preliminaries results, we can tell that both Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi were in excellent form today. It's a pity that such outstanding results were a bit wasted in the preliminaries this morning."
"Yes." Li Sen nodded in agreement. "In the preliminaries, conventional competition strategies will be reduced. As we all know, because the preliminaries and semi-finals are held on the same day, running too hard in the morning may affect the players' performance in the semi-finals. Therefore, in the preliminaries, the goal is usually to 'smoothly obtain a qualifying spot'."
During the conversation between Shao Minyi and Li Sen, they also roughly introduced the gap between the top Asian level and the Chinese level in the 400m event. Both of them expressed some concerns about Qiu Wen and Zhang Ziyi in the semi-finals in the evening.
During the conversation, 10 minutes passed in a flash, the stadium was ready for the 400-meter event, and the first group of contestants in the semi-finals had also arrived at the stadium.
"Okay, we can see that the first group of semi-finalists have officially appeared. This group of players are from eight countries including Bahrain, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and China. Among them, Lakasa from Bahrain, Reginald from Indonesia, and Deseral from Sri Lanka are all strong competitors for Zhang Ziyi..."
By the semi-finals, it cannot be said that the players' strength had improved by leaps and bounds compared to the preliminaries, but because the number of qualifying places had shrunk dramatically, the competition among the players and the difficulty of scrambling for places had increased dramatically.
Several athletes in the same group as Zhang Ziyi are naturalized black athletes. Their 400-meter talent is not the most outstanding among black people, but for the 400-meter sprint competition environment in Asia, it can be regarded as a dimensionality reduction attack.
These players all have the ability to run under 46 seconds, and their individual PBs are higher than Zhang Ziyi's. So, after Shao Minyi and Li Sen introduced the players' nationalities and individual PBs and SBs one by one, the comments from the audience on the public screen became a little discouraged again.
[No matter what, come on Zhang Shuai!] 】
Although it is not a good mentality to be discouraged before the competition, track and field enthusiasts have become accustomed to this state, especially in international 400-meter competitions. Sometimes, it is not everyone's expectations and encouragement that can help athletes achieve ideal results.
Over time, during international competitions, the audience has learned to "keep a calm mind" and to be "tolerant" of the athletes.
In the audience seats, Jiang Wentao, Pei Jinan and others were also watching the game on site. Compared with ordinary track and field enthusiasts who didn't know the recent 400-meter training status of the national team, Jiang Wentao and others had more confidence in Zhang Ziyi. However, the anticipation for the event brought about by this increase in confidence also made it more difficult for them than ordinary spectators.
"Coach Su, do you think Zhang Ziyi still has a good chance of making it to the finals?" Jiang Wentao couldn't help but turn around and ask Su Bai again, wanting to get a positive answer from Su Bai as a consolation.
Su Bai was sitting in the audience, watching Zhang Ziyi preparing for the match, and nodded: "Yes, as long as he believes in himself and goes all out, there will be no problem!"
After hearing Su Bai's words, Jiang Wentao and Pei Jinan looked at each other, their hearts were relieved a little, and their expectations were magnified a little more.
At the starting point of the track at the competition venue, Zhang Ziyi was already prepared. He stood behind the starting blocks, put his hands on his hips, shook his head gently, and reminded himself in his heart - relax, relax your mind, and don't let the pressure affect your state.
In the afternoon, as the semi-finals approached, Zhang Ziyi became nervous for a while, but after he saw coach Su Bai who came with the team, the tension that had originally made him feel stressed out miraculously gradually dissipated after facing Su Bai's calm face.
Their coach, who had found a bunch of American players to "torture" them since they joined the national team, had now become a stabilizing force in Zhang Ziyi's heart.
Besides, they have all been beaten by the American players. Now they are just facing some players who are not particularly talented and have come to Asia to attack them. Why should they make themselves so nervous that it affects their competitive state?
After thinking it through, Zhang Ziyi breathed a sigh of relief and his mind became much clearer. Looking at the Bahraini, Sri Lankan and Indonesian players on the scene, a desire to compete with them quietly emerged in Zhang Ziyi's heart.
As the time reached 20:45, the whistle sounded on the scene, and the referee's calm voice announced the official start of the game on the radio.
The runners at the starting point of the bend stepped from the track behind the starting blocks to the front of them, bent down and squatted on the starting blocks with ease. It was just a series of simple movements, but the undercurrents among the runners appeared on the originally calm track.
"Everyone, take your positions."
The athletes supported themselves with their hands, raised their hips, and slightly bent their knees forward and backward, getting ready for the start.
"preparation."
"Bang."
The sharp sound of gunfire announced the official start of the competition!
In the audience, spectators from all over Indonesia were waving national flags, cheering for Reginald, the Indonesian athlete on the track. In the Chinese athlete seats, Zhou Xu, Zhang Chang and others were also waving small flags, trying their best to cheer for Zhang Ziyi on the track.
On the track, Zhang Ziyi felt that his mind was exceptionally clear from the start, giving him a feeling of being outside the game, but he could also clearly feel the fiery state in his heart and every step he took to sprint forward.
He could clearly sense that from the moment the starting gun sounded, he stomped his right foot hard and used the explosive power of his right leg to push himself onto the track.
He could even sense that because he was starting at a curve, his body was slightly pulled by centrifugal force when he turned, and that this pulling force was in conflict with his own forward force.
Zhang Ziyi had never experienced this feeling in previous competitions. This wonderful feeling allowed him to have full judgment in the tense and exciting competition. He seemed to feel that his perception of his body and control over the game were stronger than before.
And this kind of strength will surely be converted into an advantage for him in every millisecond on the court!
"The competition has begun, Zhang Ziyi's bubbling is great!"
In the live broadcast room of the sports channel, Shao Minyi and Li Sen's commentary also began at the same time.
"At the start, Zhang Ziyi's reaction was very sharp and his cornering technique was very mature. It can be seen that during the cornering phase, Zhang Ziyi's speed was the fastest among all the runners!"
"Bahrain's Lakasa and Indonesia's Reginald also performed very well. In the second 100-meter stage, the advantages between Lakasa, Reginald and Zhang Ziyi are gradually being established!"
On the public screen, even though they no longer had much hope for the competition, the audience on the barrage were still cheering enthusiastically for Zhang Ziyi.
[Zhang Shuai, go for it!] 】
[Come on, come on, come on!] ! 】
Every audience member has more or less conflicting expectations. They hope to see the Chinese players leave the others far behind just like they did in the morning preliminaries, but their rationality also tells them that no matter what, as long as the players have tried their best, that is enough.
Huang Yiluan and several die-hard 400-meter supporters in his group were of course also watching the race. From the moment Zhang Ziyi started running, his fists were clenched and his eyes were fixed on the computer screen, not daring to move away for even a second.
Come on, come on Zhang Shuai!
Just like the preliminaries in the morning, I happily won the qualifying spot!
As long as you can make it to the finals, I, Old Huang, will bring my face to you and Coach Su for you to slap in all kinds of ways!
On the track, Zhang Ziyi had no time to think about anything else. The sound of his breathing and the pounding of his heart had become the only melody in his ears.
Every sound of his footsteps hitting the ground deepened Zhang Ziyi's obsession with pursuing victory and speed.
go ahead.
Move forward again.
Then he surpassed the Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Bahraini athletes in front of him...
In the live broadcast room of the sports channel, the audience originally thought that Zhang Ziyi was in good shape at the start, but that was just good. However, as the first bend passed and the contestants entered the first straight track, Zhang Ziyi's speed was not left behind by the several black naturalized contestants on the track in front of him. Even as they gradually entered the third white rice stage, the distance between Zhang Ziyi and those black naturalized contestants gradually shortened!
Gradually, there were only three black naturalized athletes and a yellow-skinned man named Zhang Ziyi from China at the front of the track!
"Zhang Ziyi, well done!" Shao Minyi's voice gradually began to get a little excited: "The current first group is 4 players from Bahrain, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and China. Zhang Ziyi is not only approaching them, but is gradually surpassing them! 3rd! Now Zhang Ziyi has reached the third position! There is hope!!!"
On the public screen, the audience's barrage of comments also increased significantly due to the changes in the battle situation. Everyone excitedly typed various words of encouragement on the public screen, and a tense and exciting mood surged into everyone's heart.
On the track, the athletes have already reached the bend of the third 100-meter stage. At this time, Zhang Ziyi is already very close to Lacasa and Reginald.
The two black naturalized players never expected that the one chasing them from behind would be a yellow-skinned player. They had anticipated this match before the game, and at that time, they did not include Zhang Ziyi in the ranks of competitors.
As a result, when they were about to reach the final sprint stage, a player from China began to challenge their position!
The moment they realized that Zhang Ziyi was trying to impact their qualifying spot, both Lacasa and Reginald simultaneously sped up at the third turn without sparing any effort.
But their acceleration did not effectively curb Zhang Ziyi, and Zhang Ziyi also quickened his pace at the same time - he also still had some spare energy for the final sprint and ranking.
When Lacasa, Reginald and Zhang Ziyi turned from the curve into the final straight sprint together, the final competition officially began!
Zhang Ziyi does not have the outstanding talents of speed and endurance like Qiu Wen. At this stage, the lack of oxygen in both his muscles and his brain has made him exhausted. He controls his breathing, but at this stage, the feeling of trachea tearing brought about by every breath makes him feel extremely painful.
Huff, huff…
However, the feeling of bringing pressure to the naturalized black players, and the feeling of having the hope of crushing them at any time and rushing to the front to qualify for the final, made Zhang Ziyi feel particularly excited.
This feeling of excitement and the will to pursue victory ignited the remaining energy in his body, and he started to sprint forward desperately on the final track!
"Go!!! Come on, Lao Zhang!"
In the audience, Zhou Xu, Zhang Chang, Guo Dun and others were cheering for Zhang Ziyi at the top of their lungs. There were also some Chinese audiences or overseas Chinese who were cheering loudly for Zhang Ziyi.
In the commentary room of the sports channel, Shao Minyi and Li Sen were also cheering loudly for Zhang Ziyi.
"Come on!!! There is hope!!" Shao Min looked at Zhang Ziyi on the track, watching him gradually approach Reginald, and then overtake Reginald in the last 50 meters!
"Overtaken! Top two!! Hold on!!"
The fair barrage in the live broadcast room has now been completely drowned out by the screaming barrage from the audience.
Huang Yiluan sat in front of his computer at home, his hands clenched into fists and pressed tightly against the table. He couldn't even sit still, so he simply stood up in front of the computer and stared at the screen.
"Come on!!! Come on Zhang Shuai!!!"
Zhang Ziyi on the track may have heard the cheers from a distant foreign land, or the boiling fighting spirit in his heart made him unable to stop for a moment.
After overtaking Reginald in the last 50 meters, Zhang Ziyi was still sprinting forward with all his strength!
Not far ahead of him was Bahraini athlete Lakasa who was also striving hard!
Keep going, don't stop!
This short sentence kept echoing in Zhang Ziyi's mind. Even though the fatigue and sense of separation in his body had spread throughout his body, he still gritted his teeth, maintained his movements, and leaned forward slightly, allowing the power of his swinging arms to drive him forward more powerfully!
"The distance between Zhang Ziyi and Lacasa is still shortening!!!" Li Sen's voice was filled with passion: "They are getting closer! Come on, Zhang Ziyi!!!"
Until the last 10 meters of the track, the distance between Zhang Ziyi and Lacasa was so great that it was difficult to tell with the naked eye who was ahead and who was behind. Neither Lacasa nor Zhang Ziyi, nor even Reginald behind them, gave up at all.
They are struggling and sprinting forward, fighting for every possible second!
"come on!!!"
“Cross the finish line!!!”
In the end, Lacasa and Zhang Ziyi almost crossed the finish line side by side. In this semi-final that was more intense than many people had imagined, they both won the qualification to advance to the final of this group.
“Great job!!!”
In the commentary room, Shao Minyi and Li Sen both celebrated loudly.
But, the finish line has been crossed, but who will be the final first place? !
Everyone looked expectantly at the referees on site, and the referee team on site was urgently retrieving the video records of the two players finally crossing the finish line.
When the images of Zhang Ziyi and Lacasa crossing the finish line at the same time were enlarged onto the big screen, the final winner was revealed.
In the live broadcast room, Shao Minyi announced loudly with excitement: "The first place in the first group of the men's 400m semi-finals of the Jakarta Asian Games is Zhang Ziyi from China! When he crossed the finish line, the effective part of his torso crossed the finish line before Bahrain's Lakasa!"
"Let us congratulate Zhang Ziyi! He won the first place in the group of this semi-final with a score of 45.52 seconds, and also successfully refreshed his personal best in this game!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
