Chapter 21 (Catching Bugs)
When Zhou Yuang said this, Jiang Yuan couldn't help but look at this guy who always had the image of a sunny and cheerful big boy - he really didn't expect that he was so good at being weird.
Zhang Ping and Fang Linsen were so choked up by Zhou Yuang's words that their faces turned pale. They didn't want to pay any attention to this guy, so they turned around and dispersed to the left and right.
Seeing the two of them walking to different ends, Zhou Yuang smiled and touched his chin, curiously asking, "Hey, aren't they familiar with each other? Why are they going their separate ways again?"
Jiang Yuan: “…”
Don't you know why the two of them went their separate ways?
***
It didn't matter what the relationship between Zhang Ping and Fang Linsen was. After they left, Su Yu no longer paid attention to where they went, but focused on his pre-match warm-up preparations.
Zhou Yuang watched the two men leave with a smile on his face, and stopped talking nonsense. After laughing a little, he stopped laughing and also devoted himself to warm-up preparations.
Today's match was not easy for Su Yu, and it was also quite difficult for him to advance - even before the technical changes, he would only have the chance to advance within 11.50 seconds if he performed extremely well.
After more than a month of technical improvements, his ability to control his body has become stronger. More stable body control and a more solid technical foundation allow him to perform better and more stably in competitions. The stability of his overall results is much stronger than before.
However, technological reforms do not bring pure advantages, of course, but also some disadvantages.
For example, his grasp of the overall technique is not yet proficient enough, he has not yet adapted to the new active leg after changing it, and so on.
In short, although his performance has not declined significantly due to many details, he is still some distance away from regaining his peak performance.
In this game, if you want to advance, you have to be serious and serious - play your current state to the extreme, then there is a slight possibility of advancement.
At the same time, Zhou Yuang cast his gaze from afar at Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui from the G Province team.
In today's National U16 Base Competition with a total of 69 participants, there were probably only these two people who were able to remain relaxed throughout the preliminary stage without fear of the attention of all the opponents around them.
Whether it is Ye Minghao whose PB is 10.56 or Jiang Ruohui whose PB is 10.89, these two athletes from Province G have undoubtedly stood at the top of the pyramid of this National U16 Track and Field Base Competition.
Although they are only one year apart, the difference in performance is almost one second.
This is not just a difference of fourteen or fifteen seconds. When the result is getting closer and closer to the 11-second mark, every improvement of 0.1 second is extremely difficult.
Zhou Yuang still remembers how long he was blocked in the world outside of 11.30 seconds - not only 11.30 seconds, but also 11.50 seconds and 11.60 seconds. Since he stepped into the world within 12 seconds, every 0.1 second improvement was engraved with the difficult steps he took when he was growing up wildly.
Whether it was because they noticed Zhou Yuang's attention or it was just a coincidence, Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui in the distance happened to look at the direction where Zhou Yuang and Su Yu were, and they smiled at them.
"Tsk, it's so relaxing."
Zhou Yuang scratched his hair, stopped paying attention to the two people, and continued with his pre-match warm-up.
It was Su Yu, however, who, after glancing at Zhou Yuang, raised his eyes and met the gazes of Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui. He stared at Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui from a distance, until Jiang Ruohui smiled and waved and turned his gaze away from Ye Minghao. Only then did Su Yu retract his gaze and look at Zhou Yuang.
"You care about those two players."
Although Zhou Yuang had originally withdrawn his attention from Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui, for some reason, he was still a little restless. Until the two of them finished looking at Su Yu and faced Su Yu's straightforward exposure, the restlessness that had previously shrouded Zhou Yuang disappeared in an instant.
He was stunned for a moment, and asked in a daze, "Xiaoyu?"
Su Yu frowned and looked at him: "Don't worry about it, just focus on yourself."
Seeing Su Yu, whom he had known for more than a month and who was usually so cold as if he didn't even see his roommate, say this, Zhou Yuang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed, hugged the boy in front of him, and ruffled his hair in the other's disgusted look.
He clearly has a cold-faced and arrogant personality, so how can he be so cute?
Su Yu was dazed by his hug and stretched out his hand to push him away, but Zhou Yuan was much bigger than him and was very emotional at the moment, so he tried to tear Zhou Yuan apart for a long time but failed. Jiang Yuan, who was standing nearby, noticed his temper and stepped forward with a smile to help pull Zhou Yuan apart.
Zhou Yuang, who was torn apart, was not angry. Instead, he rubbed Su Yu's head one last time before being torn apart. Then he put away the improper smile on his face and said seriously, "Thank you, Xiao Yu."
Su Yu was very annoyed because he hugged her for a while. She didn't bother to pay attention to him and turned around to continue preparing for the competition.
But Zhou Yuang was really grateful to Su Yu.
You know, in a 100-meter race that lasts only about ten seconds, the athlete's state is very easily affected by emotional fluctuations. Whether the athlete can mobilize his or her competitive state before the game is a topic that requires repeated trials and continuous research for both coaches and athletes.
He had just been in good shape, but after meeting the gazes of Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui, he unknowingly lost the state he had accumulated, and even became irritable and restless. Even though he himself realized that his condition was not right and withdrew his gaze and wanted to continue preparing for the game, in fact, only he knew how bad his condition was at that time. Even though he kept reminding himself to focus on preparing for the game, the irritability all over his body was actually about to overflow.
It was not until Su Yu met the gaze of Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui that he said to him, "Don't worry about it, just focus on yourself."
***
On the other side, Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui actually had no ill intentions. They were just observing Su Yu and Zhou Yuang during their warm-up preparations. However, because of their strength, even ordinary observations could give their opponents a completely different feeling.
After Ye Minghao and the others realized that it was not good for the two to continue staring at people, they turned around and went to the corner of the venue to warm up. But halfway through the warm-up, Jiang Ruohui suddenly smiled and said, "Ye Zi, you are right, that Su Yu is a bit interesting."
Ye Minghao recalled the eye contact between Su Yu and them just now, and smiled: "I really can't wait."
I can’t wait to see this promising and interesting opponent grow up faster and then meet him on the court.
***
As the first group of runners finished warming up, the on-site staff began to guide the first group of runners to the starting line of the 100-meter track.
The staff here have already placed 9 numbered signs in the order of lanes 1 to 9, and the starting blocks have also been placed in front of the starting line. After the first group of runners came forward according to their respective lanes, these runners from various provincial teams and sports schools have begun to skillfully adjust the front and back positions and angles of the starting blocks as required.
Soon, after the athletes adjusted the angle of the starting blocks and practiced starting, the assistant coach on the scene began to blow the whistle to remind the athletes watching the game to keep quiet - the first group of the men's 100m preliminaries was about to begin!
In the audience seats, after the whistle sounded to signal silence, the summer camp students of the S Province Sports Team, who were originally chatting animatedly in the audience seats, became a little nervous because of the serious atmosphere of the game.
"Fuck, I'm so nervous. What's going on? I feel like our test match that day was totally incomparable..."
"Shhh!!! Shut up!!"
As the whistle was blown on the spot, the entire track and field base of the S Province Sports Team became quiet. In the atmosphere where you could almost hear a pin drop, the assistant coach in charge of refereeing the men's 100-meter preliminaries calmly gave the command of "get on your positions". All the athletes quickly walked around to their starting blocks, supported themselves with their hands and stepped on the front and rear pedals of the starting blocks with their feet.
Then, after confirming that all the contestants were ready, the command of "Ready" sounded, and then, in less than a breath, the starting gun in the referee's hand went off with a "bang" -
The game begins!
The eight young players on the track started almost simultaneously at the moment the starting gun sounded. It should be said that this is worthy of being a competition representing the highest level of U16 level in the country. Just in the starting stage, there is no trace of the rough technical performance of the players in the previous summer camp final test match.
Not only that, the athletes' starting reactions were also very quick. If you look at the monitoring screen of the on-site data group, you can see that the starting reactions of the eight athletes in the first group were basically around 0.16 or 0.17 seconds, and the slowest athlete's starting reaction was 0.182 seconds.
For U16 athletes, this is already a very good starting reaction time data.
The coaches of the provincial teams in the audience also showed relatively satisfied expressions on their faces after seeing the performance of these athletes at the starting stage.
“The overall level of the contestants this time is very good.”
"In the past two years, many good seedlings have emerged."
While watching the preliminaries performance of the young athletes on the field, the coaches were also having simple exchanges and discussions. Some were exchanging ideas about training considerations for the young athletes, and some were discussing how to maintain the enthusiasm of young athletes for specialized training at their current age.
The first group of players in the preliminaries who were competing in the arena naturally knew how difficult it was to advance to the finals in this base competition. Therefore, no matter how strong they were, they did not relax at all in this preliminaries - because it was possible that just a slight relaxation would make their results 0.1 seconds slower than their opponents.
In the 100-meter race, 0.1 second is the difference between victory and defeat.
This is a competition where every second counts!
On the track, from the start, these young athletes started competing with each other with all their strength, from every running step to every chase that refused to fall behind.
Sprint, sprint!
Even though they were just sitting in the audience, the summer camp students began to be infected by the atmosphere of the game, and then they started to cheer loudly for the players on the field.
The cheers at the scene gradually stopped until the runners successfully crossed the finish line one after another.
The summer camp students in the audience only breathed a sigh of relief at this point, and then looked at each other.
“It’s really exciting!”
"What the hell is going on? Watching their game feels so different from watching our final camp test match!"
"Yeah, my god, watching them compete, I feel like I'm starting to like track and field again - it's so exciting! Summer camp was so hard, and I trained so hard that my face turned green. I even thought I would never participate in these school activities again..."
While the students in the audience were discussing excitedly with each other, the students who had just completed the first set of tests on the field finally received their final results.
The first place in the group was won by Tang Xianwen from the junior group of the F Province Sports Team. His score of 11.27 seconds (wind speed 1.12m/s) basically secured him a place in the finals. He is also a player who has competed with Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui many times in the past one or two years. Although he has never been able to get any advantage over Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui, in terms of his own ability, he is also a well-known young player in China.
The second place was taken by a young athlete from Province Z. His result of 11.49 seconds was definitely not weak and he was firmly on the edge of the qualifying line.
As for the third and fourth place players, their results were not bad. If the results of 11.59 and 11.65 were placed among the players of the previous S Province Sports Team summer camp, they would have been enough for them to sweep the top two places. However, in today's game, they only got third and fourth place in the group.
This is enough to show the level gap between this base competition and the previous summer camp.
The students in the audience widened their eyes in shock when they saw the results of the top eight contestants on the large electronic screen.
"Oh my god, the eighth place score was 12.34?!"
“…”
"Damn, do you remember Liao Weiwei's score in our final test match that day?"
"Uh." The student being questioned was stunned for a moment, then hesitantly said: "It seems to be about 12.35 seconds?"
Upon hearing this answer, the student who asked the question turned green and said, "So if Liao Weiwei participates in this group, he probably won't even get eighth place in the group?!"
On the field, Liao Weiwei, who happened to be in the second group to compete, had his face turn green after watching the performance and results of the first group of players.
Eighth place 12.34 seconds? This is not giving people a chance to survive!
Although Liao Weiwei knew that his strength could not be compared with those young players from various provincial teams and sports schools, he also imagined that he could get a result of around third in the group in the preliminaries - even if he failed to advance to the finals, at least the third place would not seem shameful.
The result of the first group in the preliminary round taught him a lesson:)
However, in the area where the coaches were in the audience, the discussion among the coaches did not seem that excited.
"The performance of the first group of players in this preliminary round is above the overall average, right?"
"Yes, the overall strength of these kids in the first group is quite strong."
After all, these coaches communicate with each other frequently, and everyone has a basic idea of what kind of players each provincial team has. Names like Tang Xianwen from the first group and Qian Wenbin, who came in second, are names that these coaches are quite impressed with.
As expected, after the results of the second group came out, the first-ranked player in the second group only scored 11.58 seconds, temporarily ranking third in the overall ranking. As for the second-placed player in the second group, his score of 11.76 seconds basically meant that he would miss the final this afternoon.
However, although the overall level of the second group of players was slightly lower, Liao Weiwei, who was also in the second group, did not get a very good result. His result of 12.46 seconds made him the last in this group and he was eliminated first.
In the audience, the summer camp students all showed an expression of "as expected" after seeing Liao Weiwei's results and ranking.
"It's the eighth place after all..."
"Oh, there is still a gap between us in the summer camp and the regular army."
"Hey, but do you think Su Yu and Zhou Yuang will be better soon?"
Someone's eyes lit up after hearing the names of Su Yu and Zhou Yuang, but soon they became dull again and said, "It may be better, but it's probably limited. After all, you see, in the test match that day, Su Yu scored 11.67 and Zhou Yuang scored 11.68. The two had similar scores, but the scores of 11.67 and 11.68 in today's preliminaries..."
The man pointed to the large electronic screen on the scene that was always on and displayed the overall ranking and results of the preliminary contestants, and said, "Even if Su Yu and Zhou Yuang really ran out of 11.67 and 11.68 again, but in today's preliminaries, according to the current ranking results, they would be sixth and seventh - but the problem is that now is the end of the second group's competition!"
"Yes, after the second group's race, the scores of 11.67 and 11.68 can only rank sixth and seventh. We don't even have to wait until all the races are over. I estimate that after the third and fourth groups' races are over, these two scores will not be in the top eight."
These summer camp students looked at the results on the electronic screen and once again deeply felt the gap in strength between them and the "regular army".
At this moment, the third group of players had arrived at the competition venue.
The summer camp students on the field still made a small commotion -
"Hey, Su Yu! It's Su Yu coming on stage!"
In any case, the miraculous leap from a time of over 17.50 seconds before the camp started to first place in the test match at the end of the camp with a time of 11.67 seconds still made the summer camp students regard Su Yu as a legend.
"No matter what...Su Yu can get a pretty good score, right?"
"That's right! Even if we can't advance to the finals, at least getting into the top three shouldn't be a problem!"
With Su Yu's appearance, the summer camp participants who had previously said they had no confidence in Su Yu and Zhou Yuang once again began to look forward to Su Yu.
On the court, even Zhou Yuang gave Su Yu a big hug before he went on the court, and said with a smile: "It will be my turn to play in the next game. Xiaoyu, you have to set an example for me in this game!"
Su Yu frowned and slapped Zhou Yuan's claws away, then nodded in the direction of Jiang Yuan and went on stage.
Behind him, Zhang Ping from J Province Sports Team and Fang Linsen from S Province Sports Team also stepped onto the preliminary arena with Zhou Yuang's wave and a bright smile. However, unlike Su Yu who was focused from the moment he entered the arena, Zhou Yuang's words kept replaying in their minds - I'm really envious of you. You will be able to experience for yourself how strong the wildcard players are in the summer camp soon!
It was not until he went on the field and adjusted the starting blocks that Zhang Ping was able to adjust his condition.
He knew that his current condition was a bit bad and wanted to change the group of the competition, but he knew that he was not qualified for this choice.
As for Fang Linsen, his mind had been entangled with Zhou Yuang's words, but after he went on stage, he barely put aside the bad things circulating in his mind. What he used to comfort himself was Liao Weiwei's result in the second group of the preliminaries.
Liao Weiwei also ran a time of 12.3 in the previous camp closing test match, but wasn't he only 12.46 in the preliminaries just now?
Athletes are human beings, not robots. How can they guarantee that their performance will never change?
Maybe Su Yu was in very bad shape today, and not only could he not run 11.67 seconds, but he couldn't even run 11.77 or 87 seconds? This is entirely possible!
After all, he is just a student who has been training for less than two months. How could his performance be so stable?
It’s possible that the closing test match that day was just because of the presence of Zhou Yuang, a player who is of similar level to Su Yu and whom Su Yu is familiar with, which stimulated his condition and allowed him to run 11.67 seconds - after all, in the preliminary stage that day, Su Yu hadn't even broken the 12-second mark, right?
The more Fang Linsen comforted himself, the more he believed in his idea.
So by the time he got to his own track, he had already completely believed in his idea in his mind.
——The reason why Su Yu was able to run 11.67 seconds was purely because of the help and stimulation of Zhou Yuang in the same competition. No one in the same group with Su Yu in this competition was familiar to Su Yu. Under such circumstances, Su Yu would definitely not be able to maintain the same good form as before, and might even run a result worse than Liao Weiwei!
With such a self-brainwashed and peaceful thought, Fang Linsen managed to calm down and stood behind his starting block.
It was not until he stood behind the starting blocks that Fang Linsen discovered that - coincidentally - in this race, Su Yu was in the fifth lane, he was in the fourth lane, and Zhang Ping was in the sixth lane.
He and Zhang Ping happened to be on Su Yu's left and right sides.
I don’t know how, but after standing on the same lane next to Su Yu at the starting line, an inexplicable sense of tension once again enveloped Fang Linsen.
Compared with Fang Linsen, Zhang Ping did not have so many lucky thoughts. What kind of result is 11.67 seconds? It was a very simple and clear concept to him.
Since Su Yu was able to run a result of 11.67 seconds, this result was definitely not just luck.
On the field, the athlete in the third lane who was in the same group as Su Yu and the others was a player from the F Province Sports Team. Although this player was not as strong as his teammate Tang Xianwen, he had also run under 11.50 seconds. Even though his performance was not stable, it was definitely not bad - in other words, Li Enxiu from the F Province Sports Team could be considered the top of the third group in the preliminaries in terms of overall strength.
In previous competitions, Li Enxiu had fought against Fang Linsen and Zhang Ping several times, especially he and Zhang Ping often won and lost against each other. But before today's game, Li Enxiu found that Zhang Ping had no intention of greeting him at all.
He looked in the direction of Zhang Ping with some curiosity, but finally turned his attention back to the track in front of him.
On the fifth path, Su Yu, who was in the "encirclement" of Fang Linsen and Zhang Ping, did not have the complicated thoughts in the minds of his opponents around him.
For him, from the beginning of this game, his opponents were not the players in the same group as him, but the names and results of the players in the front row whose results were already announced on the big screen.
He wanted to win, and he wanted to win not only against the opponents in the same group as him, but also against those on the ranking list - although he knew in his heart that with his current ability, it seemed a bit beyond his capabilities to compare with those players who were ranked at the top of the preliminaries.
But so what?
After Su Yu glanced at the data on the large electronic screen on the side, he returned his gaze to the track in front of him - even if he really overestimated his own abilities, he still wanted to try to catch up.
In this life, it seemed that as long as he stood on this track, his heart and his body could not resist the desire to move forward and surpass others from the bottom of his heart.
It was as if he was making up for everything he had given up. The desire to win that had been deeply suppressed in his heart due to missed opportunities in the distant past now burst out a thousand times more vigorously.
***
Off the field, Zhou Yuang, who was waiting for the next group to come on stage, looked at Su Yu, who had focused all his attention on preparing for the game. His usual cheerful or playful look faded, and his face became serious and full of fighting spirit.
He knew that some people had speculated that Su Yu was influenced by him and that was why he achieved such good results in the previous camp closing test match - but he knew that this was certainly not the case.
In fact, the one who was truly influenced by the other party was not Su Yu, but him.
For example, now, just by looking at Su Yu concentrating on the game on the field, he could not help but feel his heart beating wildly. The fighting desire rising from his heart was enough to stimulate himself to run a better result in the next preliminaries.
But before that——
"Come on, Su Yu, let everyone see the only little ancestor of dormitory 303 explode again!"
***
When all the players on the field were ready, the coach in charge of refereeing gave the command of "get ready" - in this round of the game, there was no need for the referee to blow the whistle, the summer camp students on the field were already silent.
The tense atmosphere involuntarily spread to the entire stadium at this moment. Everyone in the audience, including the coaches, focused their attention on the stadium in front of them.
All the players on the same track as Su Yu felt the tension at the same time, especially Fang Linsen who was on the left side of Su Yu. At first, he had clearly successfully brainwashed himself, but when the command to take position sounded, he couldn't help but tense up.
I can’t lose—at least I can’t lose to Su Yu!
With this thought in mind, Fang Linsen became extremely tense, with the only thought in his mind being 'I must start fast, I must start fast'!
So, when the referee on the scene gave the command "ready", his spirit instantly tensed to the highest point, and then he seemed to hear the sound of a starting gun "bang" in his ears, and he immediately responded!
Start running!
After he started running, his opponents in the same group also started running one after another, but their reaction speed at the start seemed not as fast as his - before the joy of successfully taking the lead could surge into Fang Linsen's heart, the referee on the scene had already blew the whistle.
"The fourth lane - false start foul!"
In just a moment, the joy that had not yet emerged turned into a basin of cold water poured down on my head.
Foul start? !
How did he get a foul start? !
He clearly heard the sound of the starting gun!
With this thought in mind, Fang Linsen hurriedly turned around and looked in the direction of the referee team, wanting to confirm whether he had really committed a foul. But what he got was an extremely confident answer from the referee team - at that moment, he only felt that his body had completely stiffened, as if he could no longer move.
***
Someone committed a foul at the start, so the start of this round is cancelled and the race will be restarted!
When the referee's whistle sounded, the summer camp students in the audience were in an uproar, and even the young players who were waiting for the start of the game were a little surprised.
"Fang Linsen ran away?"
"Why is he so nervous? Is it too much?"
"Oh my, this group's results are doomed!"
Why do we say that this group’s performance is ruined?
Because the athletes are often in the most focused mental state when the first shot is fired. Once an athlete starts running falsely at the first shot, other athletes who did not start running falsely will often start to worry about themselves starting running falsely. This will cause athletes who originally reacted quickly to the gun to become relatively cautious in the second shot of the race.
Therefore, when the athletes start the second shot, their reaction speed is often not as fast as the first shot.
At this moment, on the large electronic screen at the scene, the data group gave the reaction speed of the third group of contestants in the preliminaries to the first shot.
The speed following Fang Linsen's name in the fourth lane was -0.132 seconds, which means that he had started 0.132 seconds before the starting gun sounded, which was a very standard false start violation. However, since this U16 base race did not adopt the 0 false start ban, Fang Linsen was not penalized and was able to start again in the second round with everyone else.
But at this moment, Fang Linsen was completely out of form because of his early start, and his face turned extremely pale.
At the same time, in the coaching area of the audience, a coach looked at Su Yu's starting reaction data in the fifth lane and sighed -
“What a pity.”
On the large electronic screen, Su Yu's starting reaction time in lane 5 was 0.139 seconds, which was another excellent starting reaction speed, far ahead of other players.
But unfortunately, the start of this round was cancelled.
The second round is about to start...
The coaches present all shook their heads - it would be difficult for Su Yu to get such a starting speed again!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
