At this point in the race, it was already evening. The rain in the morning had disappeared, and the sun was still shining on the field.
After the cleaning, there was basically no rain water left on the track, and the slightly damp track had no effect on the runners.
On the 110-meter hurdles track, three members of the Chinese team, Cui Luoheng, Lu Mengfan and Zhao Yankai, were in the 4th, 5th and 7th lanes respectively.
On the remaining five tracks, the only one who poses a slight threat to the three 110-meter hurdlers of the national team is Koichi Komatsu from the Japanese team. He had won the only medal besides Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan in the previous Asian Games.
Unlike previous events such as the 400-meter sprint, after Cui Luoheng's rise in the Asian Games, the PB result he set in the 110-meter hurdles at the Asian Games was also the best result among all Asian athletes in 2018. With him and Lu Mengfan, at least in Asia, the Chinese team can be said to have a certain dominance in the 110-meter hurdles event.
S Province Track and Field Team, Conference Room
Almost all track and field teams at all levels across the country are paying attention to this Asian Six Nations Joint Track and Field Competition, and the S Province Track and Field Team will certainly not miss out on paying attention to this competition.
During the two-day competition, coaches of the track and field team including He Yishen, Zhao Heping and Zhou Wen followed the competition throughout. They were amazed at the achievements made by Su Bai after joining the national track and field team.
"Who would have thought that Xiaobai has only been a coach for less than a year?" He Yishen looked at the 110-meter hurdles race about to start on the screen and sighed, "Qiu Wen and Ah Heng, these two kids are really thanks to Xiaobai."
Zhou Wen, the hurdles coach of the S Province Track and Field Team, was originally Cui Luoheng's head coach. Over the past six months, although he has handed Cui Luoheng over to Su Bai, he has never forgotten to pay attention to Cui Luoheng.
He watched Cui Luoheng's time go from 14.57 at the beginning of the 2018 season to 13.57, 13.47... and finally to the Asian Games, when he won the gold medal with 13.37, which amazed countless people. Now, seeing that he is naturally standing in the center of the track, even surpassing Lu Mengfan, he couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion in his heart.
"Yes, Xiaobai... Qiu Wen and Ah Heng are indeed alive thanks to him, but he did more than just bring Qiu Wen and Ah Heng back to life."
Su Bai is a person who came out of the S Province Track and Field Team. Even though he has now secured the identity of a national team coach, he is still branded with the mark of the S Province Track and Field Team. Over the past six months, Su Bai has made achievements in his coaching position, and the S Province Track and Field Team can be said to be proud of it.
"Okay, the game is about to begin!"
While a few people were talking, the starter on the live broadcast had already issued the command of "on your marks". The 110-meter hurdles race, which many people thought had turned into a "civil war", was about to begin!
On the track, after the starting signal was sounded, Cui Luoheng walked around to the starting block, bent down, supported himself with his hands, and then used his legs to jump and step onto the starting block one after the other.
After more than half a year, he now has enough experience in how to control and adjust his overly sensitive perception before the game starts. This experience is enough for him to easily deal with competitions of this level like today. However, he always can't help but want to think of Su Bai before the game starts... or, he wants to see Su Bai and hear a word of encouragement from him in person.
Cui Luoheng didn't know how he developed this mentality. It was obvious that he and Su Bai didn't have much actual contact time. After all, there were more and more athletes around Su Bai. Just like what Qiu Wen said every day - the 400-meter event was Su Bai's forte, and those of them who were good at the 110-meter hurdles or the 100-meter Fang Yu were just one of the 'concubines in the harem' that Su Bai would occasionally pay attention to.
But even so, although Cui Luoheng didn't say it usually, he still stubbornly had an inexplicable sense of trust and closeness towards Su Bai in his heart.
Maybe... this is the so-called personal charm of a famous coach?
On the track, Cui Luoheng, who was already squatting on the starting blocks, looked as dull as usual, but his mind was full of imagination. He recalled the eye contact with Su Bai in the audience before the starter gave the signal. It seemed as if he heard Su Bai saying "Come on" to him.
Yes, come on!
Cui Luoheng looked at the track in front of him with somewhat indifferent eyes. From his stubborn gaze, one could vaguely see his obsession with "victory".
On Cui Luoheng's right is Lu Mengfan, who is also silent and accumulating his own momentum. As the number one 110-meter hurdles runner in China before Cui Luoheng's rise, the pressure on Lu Mengfan has indeed been reduced a lot after Cui Luoheng's appearance. However, Lu Mengfan was able to reach his current height. His desire for victory and his persistence in breaking through his own achievements are by no means weaker than Cui Luoheng!
He could accept that Cui Luoheng was extremely talented and had become the number one in the 110-meter hurdles in China, but he had never given up the idea of improving himself.
In competitive sports, the strong always come out on top!
Lu Mengfan looked ahead with sharp and steady eyes. Over the past two months, Su Bai had also provided him with a tailor-made training program. With the guidance of the same famous coach, his performance might not be worse than Cui Luoheng's!
Looking at the track in front of him, a smile flashed across Lu Mengfan's eyes - this race is the best opportunity to verify his strength!
Not only Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan, but also Zhao Yankai, who was on track seven nearby, was staring silently at the track in front of him - the tragic scene of him hitting the hurdles repeatedly and eventually getting injured in the National Championships was still vivid in his mind, but with the forced rest and rehabilitation after the injury, as well as the breakthroughs in some of the previous technical difficulties during re-training over the past month, he has calmed down again.
Isn’t it just Cui Luoheng?
He, Zhao Yankai, is no pushover either!
On the field, just give it your all!
There was a tense atmosphere among just a few players of the national team. Apart from Cui Luoheng and others, several other foreign players such as Koichi Komatsu were also holding their breath, waiting for the referee to give the "ready" signal.
In addition to the 110-meter hurdles, in the high jump, 13 athletes have also completed their trial jumps before the official start of the competition. The referee directly raised the jumping height of the horizontal bar to 2.16 meters. When the 110-meter hurdles were about to start, at the high jump competition, the 13 athletes also began to sort according to their respective draw positions and gradually conducted trial jumps.
'Bang'!
When Wang Shen easily cleared the bar at a height of 2.16 meters, the starter of the 110-meter hurdles also issued the "ready" command at the same time, and then the sound of the starting gun and the sound of Wang Shen falling on the cushion overlapped!
The 110-meter hurdles race has begun!
When Wang Shen turned over and stood up on the cushion, his sight turned to the 110-meter hurdles track not far away. After glancing at Cui Luoheng who had already started accelerating, he left the landing area at the referee's signal and returned to the preparation area before take-off.
In the 110-meter hurdles, the competition was so fierce that it could be seen from the starting stage of the 8 athletes on the track!
From the moment the gun sounded, Cui Luoheng's extremely sharp perception allowed him to burst out with strength immediately. He pushed the starting block with his right foot, and used the explosive force to make his body rush forward. While the power of his two feet exploded, he stepped alternately with each other. The strong explosive force allowed him to start sprinting forward quickly!
On the short track before the hurdles, his starting acceleration was astonishingly fast - compared with the National Championships three months ago or even the Asian Games, his starting technique has made new progress. From the angle of stepping on the starting blocks to the curvature of his calves and thighs, there have been subtle changes that are imperceptible to the naked eye.
But it was this subtle change that allowed him to improve his overall rhythm and fluency, from his burst of power to his three-step acceleration and then to the hurdle!
Of course, not only Cui Luoheng's overall condition has improved, but Lu Mengfan beside him has also made some progress. However, Lu Mengfan was originally an advantageous player in the first half of the race, and in the current stage, he still maintained his highly stable advantageous speed in the first half of the race. His skillful series of bursts and speed connections made his speed at the starting stage no less than Cui Luoheng!
In the area from reacting to the gunshot to eight steps in front of the hurdle, whether it is Cui Luoheng or Lu Mengfan, there is a tension of equal strength between the two. This tension makes the other players around them look slightly inferior to them in momentum and speed!
But on the far right side of the track, Zhao Yankai on track seven also had an excellent reaction speed at the start. His reaction time of only 0.127 seconds to the gun was a rare excellent state in Zhao Yankai's racing career. Not only that, his entire starting burst stage also demonstrated a sense of smooth connection that he lacked in the past. What was even more different from the past was that his whole body revealed a sharp, desperate rush forward, and this momentum even made the players around him feel a little uncomfortable.
What happened to these guys on the Chinese team!
These crazy guys didn't seem to be playing an ordinary match. Instead, this match was like an extremely important world-class event. They released all their energy and momentum...
These lunatics!
Koichi Komatsu, who was in the third track, was also ready to try his best to win the glory again, but from the moment he started, he seemed to be controlled by these guys from the Chinese team.
Cui Luoheng... Lu Mengfan...
The speed of these two guys' reaction to hearing the gunshots even surprised him. If he hadn't been well-trained, he would have almost been defeated at the stage of hearing the gunshots.
However, even if he relied on his instinct to maintain a normal speed and rushed forward, he was already controlled by others in this first step. This feeling of facing defeat from the beginning of the race made Xiaosong Xiaoyi's face turn very bad, but he still gritted his teeth and started to rush forward, hoping that Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan's mistakes in the later stages would affect their speed and results...
You shouldn't think like that.
As an excellent 110-meter hurdler, he shouldn't have had such thoughts at the beginning of the competition...
But this thought couldn't help but flood into his mind, and as the game progressed, it began to spread.
In the commentary booth, Shao Minyi and Li Sen finally became excited again after the previous middle and long-distance races.
"Very good. At the start, our three runners were in excellent condition!"
"Cui Luoheng has already arrived at the first hurdle!"
As Shao Minyi spoke, on the track, Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan almost simultaneously completed a set of movements including taking steps in front of the hurdle to gain leverage, swinging their legs over the hurdle, raising their legs and whipping over the hurdle at the same time, leaning forward to jump over the hurdle, and swinging their legs to quickly press down to connect the steps between the hurdles.
So fast!
Shao Minyi and Li Sen were a little surprised at the speed of Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan, and their clean and neat movements when passing the hurdles. Although each of them has his own style, from the limited observation space, it can be seen that when they passed the hurdles, their time in the air on the hurdles was shorter and the height of the hurdles was lower than before.
It is obvious that these two people have made a big step forward in their overall hurdle technique in the past two months.
These two people...
Today’s results may improve again!
After observing the point mentioned above, this thought suddenly flashed through the minds of Shao Minyi and Li Sen.
Soon, Shao Minyi and Li Sen discovered that it was not only Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan in the middle position who were fast. On the far right side of the track, Zhao Yankai, who had failed to finish the race in the National Championships due to a series of mistakes, also showed a ferocious aura like a wolf on the field today!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
On the seventh track, Zhao Yankai's eyes were glowing green like a wolf.
Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan stood above his head at two different times. He originally thought that he had just lost to Lu Mengfan and it was no big deal. Later, the appearance of Cui Luoheng made him realize that he not only lost to Lu Mengfan. If he didn't fight hard, there would be Cui Luoheng now, and Zhang Luoheng and Li Luoheng would appear in the future!
It is true that he is arrogant, but he, Zhao Yankai, was able to stand out among so many 110-meter hurdlers across the country and be selected into the national team. He is no pushover!
Isn’t it just that his talent is not as good as Lu Mengfan and Cui Luoheng?
Then let’s see who can fight harder!
After the National Championships, he truly realized that it was not that he didn't want to win. In the past, he could only rely on the results when Lu Mengfan was not in the country to deceive himself. But now he wants to give it a try, in the arena where Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan are, in this arena where other Asian players are also present...
He wants to try and see how far he can go!
With this thought in mind, Zhao Yankai focused his attention completely on the track and hurdles in front of him. His eyes were fixed on the ten hurdles in front of him, treating them as the ten mountains he was about to conquer - let's try and see if he can outsmart these guys around him!
Step, step, step… Following the steps that almost followed the sound of his own heartbeat, Zhao Yankai stepped forward with a wolf-like fierce look. Then, amidst the pounding of his heartbeat and his unexpectedly calm mind, he began to watch himself sprint forward, breaking through the first hurdle, the second hurdle…
He has easily surpassed the two Asian players from other countries next to him.
But it’s not enough…
This is far from enough!
Whether it is Cui Luoheng or Lu Mengfan, they both have the ability to win medals in the Asian Games.
How could it be enough to simply surpass a few ordinary players?
Zhao Yankai's fierce eyes revealed his unwillingness to surrender!
“Come on! Come on!!!”
Although there were only a hundred or so spectators in the audience, after the previous middle- and long-distance running competitions that seemed a bit cramped, facing the 110-meter hurdles event that was full of momentum from the beginning, the audience took out all their enthusiasm and shouted loudly to cheer for the three Chinese athletes on the track!
In the live broadcast room, the comments on the public screen also showed how excited the audience was. Originally, they thought that this game was just a competition between Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan, but soon, the audience watching the live broadcast also discovered that it was Zhao Yankai who was on the seventh track... Zhao Yankai's momentum and speed were completely different from those in previous competitions, which surprised many viewers who watched the 110-meter hurdles event for many years.
[Fuck, Zhao Yankai is crazy!] 】
[Come on Xiao Cui, come on Xiao Lu!] ! ! 】
[I tm...Zhao Yankai, charge!] ! 】
In this 110-meter hurdles race, the audience once again felt the same excitement as in the previous short-distance races!
In the commentary booth, Shao Minyi and Li Sen also stared at the track. As experienced commentators, they certainly knew that Lu Mengfan was a player with an advantage in the first half. In the first half just now, Lu Mengfan had not been able to completely get rid of Cui Luoheng. In the first few hurdles, Lu Mengfan was at most half a hurdle faster than Cui Luoheng.
Under this situation, Shao Minyi and Li Sen both felt that as the race gradually entered the second half and Cui Luoheng began to exert his strength in the latter part, Lu Mengfan might be defeated by Cui Luoheng again.
However, when Lu Mengfan broke through the fifth hurdle and then attacked the sixth hurdle, they keenly discovered that Lu Mengfan no longer experienced a significant drop in speed at this stage as in the past!
This is……? !
The words "winter training" flashed through Shao Minyi and Li Sen's minds at the same time.
The two of them looked at each other quickly, and Shao Min began to explain the current battle situation on the scene.
"Lu Mengfan is currently in the lead, but Cui Luoheng is following closely behind him, and as he exerts his strength, he is now sprinting forward to catch up. The two players are firmly in the first group, followed closely by Japanese player Komatsu Koichi and Chinese player Zhao Yankai...!"
On the track, Cui Luoheng always maintained a tight control over his own rhythm. What he heard in his ears was the rhythm of his breathing, the rhythm of his heartbeat, and the subtle rhythm of the air being torn apart every time he stepped on the ground and crossed the hurdles...
Every time on the court, he would shrink all his senses to the limit, just like Su Bai had taught him. He seemed to be able to control the rhythm of his body instinctively through these keen senses...
Breathing, heartbeat, and even the extremely fine control of muscles.
He felt it all, and then let the accompanying physical and mental fatigue surge at the same time, and then used his willpower to control it all, allowing himself to control his body and his own rhythm, and rush forward at the most appropriate rhythm!
This is what Su Bai taught him, and it has gradually been integrated into his body and merged with his obsession with speed... It is his greatest advantage on the track!
As his control over his body grows, his attention is no longer confined to his own small world on the track as it was at the beginning.
He could sense that on his right, Lu Mengfan was also adjusting his breathing rhythm and attacking forward at a speed that was no less than his!
He wants to win, they all want to win!
But on the same track, they only have one winning position!
Cui Luoheng’s eyes were also fixed on the front - that was the position of the winner.
Throughout the entire track, apart from the battle between Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan of the Chinese team, the rest of the Asian players had almost no chance of competing with them.
What’s even more exaggerated is that they are competing with the third player of the Chinese team for the third place... ? !
Before the competition, Koichi Komatsu had never expected that today's 110-meter hurdles final would have such an outcome. After he had already attacked the eighth hurdle, he actually felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart...
This is not the mentality that should appear in the game at all, but today, at this moment, he suddenly felt that the two players in front of him were invincible.
And out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that on track seven, the player from the Chinese team was almost as fast as him...
This is impossible!
These four words kept repeating in Komatsu Takaichi's mind, but he suddenly felt that... the fact that he kept thinking like this meant that he was really powerless to turn the tide in this game.
Finally, when Cui Luoheng and Lu Mengfan successively conquered the tenth hurdle, Komatsu Koichi and Zhao Yankai also conquered the last hurdle at the same time...!
Sprint!
This is the final sprint!
There are only ten meters left, he can't just give up like this!
On the seventh track, Zhao Yankai didn't pay any attention to Koichi Komatsu in the third track. His attention was always on Lu Mengfan and Cui Luoheng.
The people he wanted to overtake were Lu Mengfan and Zhao Yankai. He had no idea that Koichi Komatsu on the third track, and the two Iranian and Qatari players on his left and right sides were all watching him, trying to catch up with him.
Lu Mengfan's performance in the second half of this time was much better than his previous results, but in the final stage, he was still slightly inferior to players like Cui Luoheng who performed well in the later stages.
When Cui Luoheng crossed the finish line, Lu Mengfan also crossed the line in second place.
After the two of them crossed the line one after another, Komatsu Koichi and Zhao Yankai had also reached the finish line. Then, under Komatsu Koichi's unwilling gaze, Zhao Yankai was the first to cross the finish line.
In the audience, the audience who had been shouting "Come on!" all the way and the track and field fans in the live broadcast room were all a little stunned.
They knew that the Chinese team would definitely win this game, but what they didn't expect was that the Chinese team would win the top three places and win a great victory...
For a moment, even the audience in the auditorium was silent for a moment, and then they were greeted by cheers that resounded throughout the stadium.
In the commentary booth, Shao Minyi's voice was also full of surprise: "Congratulations!!! Congratulations to Cui Luoheng, Lu Mengfan, Zhao Yankai... In this 110-meter hurdles final, our athletes successfully took the top three places!"
“Congratulations to them!!”
In a flash, even the barrage in the live broadcast room was filled with noisy congratulations, greetings and crazy shouts.
Wang Shen, who was sitting in the high jump waiting area not far away, had a look of disbelief on his face after hearing the result.
Beside him, Ye Wenhao blinked, then patted Wang Shen on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Old Wang, the 110-meter hurdles are so powerful, we can't lose... How about we try to take the top two in the high jump?"
Wang Shen was stunned when he heard this, and then he also laughed. He stretched his body and looked at Ye Wenhao with a smile: "Very good, that's exactly what I meant."
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