Chapter 24
It’s finally time to go on stage!
When Liu Wenjian in the audience saw Jiang Yuan finally take off his coat and go on stage, his originally stiff face finally relaxed a little - to be honest, if this kid still applied for a jump exemption at a height of 1.7 meters, he would probably not be able to help but stand up in the audience and yell at that guy.
As it happened, their coaching area was right in front of the high jump competition venue, and his roar would surely be heard clearly by that bastard Jiang Yuan.
On the field, Jiang Yuan took off his coat and stood in front of the right running line. In the high jump event, high jumpers can choose to take off from the left or right running line according to their preferred take-off leg. Jiang Yuan seemed to have never made a choice. From the beginning when he was instructed by the school teacher at school, he had been taking off from the right running line, and he had not encountered any problems that bothered him so far.
As the only player who applied for exemption from the jump starting from 1.5 meters, when Jiang Yuan finally stood in front of the running line, the attention of all the high jump players and the audience present was completely attracted to the high jump arena by him. However, Jiang Yuan himself did not seem to be aware of this. He just smiled and nodded to Su Yu and Zhou Yuang at the side of the arena when he turned his head to see them.
At this time, Jiang Yuan was actually already standing in front of the starting line, and the countdown for the trial jump preparation had already begun.
According to the rules of this competition, each athlete only has 1 minute to prepare for the trial jump. The time limiter standing in front of the running-up line saw that Jiang Yuan still had time to signal to his friends outside the venue. Even if Jiang Yuan was not anxious, he would have been anxious for him. Seeing that the time limit for the trial jump was getting closer and closer, the time limiter stared at the second hand and was about to raise the yellow flag to signal when the countdown reached 15 seconds, but he saw Jiang Yuan starting to run-up in front of him at this moment.
Jiang Yuan's running start was not very fast, but there was a natural rhythm between his slow and fast running movements. From each of his running steps, one could feel that he was using his body and the elastic power transmitted from the ground.
When his body moved along the arc of the run-up area and reached the taking-off point in front of the horizontal bar, he did not hesitate at all. He slammed his left leg on the ground and jumped up, and swung his right leg into the air. His body drew a vigorous and graceful arc in front of the horizontal bar, and then he easily crossed the horizontal bar with almost no pressure and in a nearly perfect posture.
After he landed on the high jump cushioning sponge bag, Jiang Yuan flipped over and stood up from the sponge bag nimbly. After looking back at the motionless horizontal bar, he easily jumped off the sponge bag and returned to the rest area.
The whole jumping process was so smooth that the audience could not even see that Jiang Yuan was struggling in the slightest. Some summer camp students even had the illusion that "high jump is so easy" after watching Jiang Yuan's performance.
"…It's outrageous. When I saw him dancing, I felt like I could do it, too."
"How can it be so easy?"
"Of course it's easy! Don't forget that Jiang Yuan jumped over 2 meters in the closing competition two days ago!"
During the previous closing camp competition, the high jump event did not receive much attention. In addition, each student had his or her own competition schedule, so many people only witnessed Jiang Yuan's high jump level for the first time in today's competition.
The high jump qualifying contestants in the same group as Jiang Yuan naturally witnessed the high jump strength of this long jump demon for the first time in Jiang Yuan's first jump.
When some familiar players saw Jiang Yuan successfully pass the pole, they couldn't help but discuss it in a low voice.
"Damn, he's so relaxed!"
Although the current height was only 1.7 meters, as young elite athletes from various provincial teams and sports schools, almost everyone present had successfully jumped this height during training, but Jiang Yuan's relaxed posture throughout the whole process still made these athletes feel the difference.
Of course, there are also more rational players who think that they need to watch a few more jumps in order to have a more accurate judgment of Jiang Yuan's level.
But just when everyone thought that Jiang Yuan would not apply for exemption after this jump, he left the field and returned to the rest area, then grabbed his sports pants and jacket and put them on again.
Everyone: ...wait, what do you mean by wrapping yourself up so tightly?
It must be because there are so many contestants in the qualifying round, so you put on a coat to avoid getting cold?
In fact, 1.7 meters is a dividing line for the contestants present. After the previous heights and the first round of trial jumps at 1.7 meters, there are only about 30 contestants left from the initial 42 contestants in the lengthy qualifying round. In addition to the contestants who failed to clear the bar in the first round of trial jumps at 1.7 meters, after the second and third rounds of trial jumps, about 3-5 more contestants will be eliminated.
At this stage, the time intervals between each contestant's trial jumps were not that long. Some contestants were too lazy to put their coats back on after taking them off, but Jiang Yuan put on his clothes leisurely, sat on the bench in the rest area, leaned against the back of the bench, closed his eyes and rested.
Outside the arena, after seeing Jiang Yuan's condition, Zhou Yuang suddenly said with admiration: "Xiao Yu, I found out that Yuan Zi is actually the Bking of our dormitory 303!"
Su Yu: “…”
Su Yu was too lazy to pay attention to Zhou Yuang's nonsense. Looking at Jiang Yuan sitting on the chair in the rest area, recalling Jiang Yuan's beautiful leap just now, Su Yu felt that the meaning of his rebirth had become even deeper at this moment.
His destiny, Jiang Yuan's destiny, had already headed towards the unknown that he could not predict the moment he made a new choice, but he knew that he liked and was willing to grasp this new destiny.
This is a vibrant lifeline that is completely different from my past self.
***
On the field, with the end of the 1.7-meter-high trial jump, the number of contestants on the field dropped sharply to 27, and there were still 17 people away from the final number target for the qualifying round.
In this round, the height of the horizontal bar was raised to 1.75 meters. More and more athletes failed in the first round of attempts. When the first round of attempts came to No. 42 Jiang Yuan, the referee turned around and saw that this guy was wearing his white sports suit again. He raised his right hand and said, "No. 42 Jiang Yuan, 1.75 meters, request for exemption from the jump."
Everyone: ...
All the athletes present were stunned. So your 1.7-meter trial jump just now was just to give yourself a guaranteed result, right? After achieving results, do you want to continue surfing the Internet without skipping a beat? !
Your coach never gets angry? !
At this moment, the coach Liu Wenjian, who was not known for getting angry, almost jumped up from his seat in the audience: "Jiang Yuan!!!"
He gritted his teeth and blurted out Jiang Yuan's name. He looked like he wanted to yell, but he probably realized that this was a base competition hosted by the S Province Sports Team, and he couldn't make a fool of himself in front of other teams participating in the competition on his own turf. So after gnashing his teeth for a while, Liu Wenjian sat down stiffly.
"This kid, this kid..." Liu Wenjian kept saying this for a long time, and finally said something "outrageous".
The coaches of other teams nearby had already noticed that Liu Wenjian was complaining about Jiang Yuan being a bad boy, but in fact he was reluctant to hit or scold Jiang Yuan. Some coaches also smiled and said to him, "Jiang Yuan is so bad, why don't you let him join our team?" "I'm not afraid that he will behave himself, I will take care of it myself." As soon as he said this, Liu Wenjian said, "You're dreaming."
The coaches in the coaching area listened and shook their heads with a smile, and in their hearts they couldn't help but feel a little envious and jealous of Liu Wenjian's luck.
The coaches present had much more experience than the players on the field. Although they didn't have sharp eyes, they were all insightful. Even though Jiang Yuan only made the first jump, the coaches present were able to get a glimpse of the whole thing.
——Not to mention anything else, just the height of Jiang Yuan’s jump just now, let alone 1.7 meters, 1.8 meters could easily clear the bar.
For such athletes, there is really no need to try out the 1.5-meter and 1.6-meter heights in the early stages. Unless the athlete feels the need to try out the heights to maintain his or her competitive form, any choice is reasonable.
Even though Liu Wenjian was shouting happily, he was just worried out of concern. If he really looked back on the situation, he would agree with Jiang Yuan's choice at this moment, but he would definitely have to nag Jiang Yuan a few words like "play steadily".
The coaches looked at Jiang Yuan, who was calm in the rest area, and shook their heads: "With good talent and a stable mentality, Jiang Yuan's future is probably limitless."
***
Starting from 1.75 meters and going down to 1.8 meters, Jiang Yuan applied for two more rounds of exemptions. At this time, there were almost no players in the competition who could maintain the result of jumping over the bar in one attempt. Even Zhang Zhaohe from the G Province team made a mistake at a height of 1.8 meters.
When it came to the height of 1.85 meters, there were only 15 contestants left. Those who had managed to hold on until now were elite contestants from the junior groups of various provincial teams in the country, with Zhang Zhaohe being the most powerful among them. The remaining contestants were also strong at around the 1.85-meter height.
It was only after the referee raised the bar to this height that Jiang Yuan, who had been sitting still as steady as a mountain, stood up again to warm up. After the top 14 contestants had completed the first round of trial jumps, Jiang Yuan, who had already taken off his jacket and trousers, finally stood in front of the starting line again.
"This Jiang Yuan...finally came up again."
In the rest area, the athletes who had completed their first trial jump, either successfully or unsuccessfully, all focused their attention on Jiang Yuan once again.
The summer camp students in the audience were a little agitated because Jiang Yuan was on the field again, but Jiang Yuan, who was standing at the starting line, didn't care about the attention at all. His eyes were fixed on the horizontal bar in front of him that had reached a height of 1.85 meters, as if he was weighing the angle from which he should jump.
The timer before the take-off point was ticking away second after second. This timer, which seemed to be a death sentence for other athletes, did not seem to have any effect on Jiang Yuan. Just as the time limiter was staring at the timer nervously and was about to raise the yellow flag in his hand representing the 15-second countdown, Jiang Yuan, who had jumped twice on the spot, finally started his run-up at the moment he raised the yellow flag!
His figure drew a beautiful arc on the runway. Each of his running steps seemed to be accumulating more power for his take-off. When he once again reached the take-off point in front of the horizontal bar, his left leg, which served as his take-off leg, slammed into the ground and jumped, converting the power of pushing off the ground into power to lift his body into the air. His right leg swung quickly into the air, and his body twisted in the air.
Jump, soar, twist - and once again, clear the bar successfully!
If everyone felt that Jiang Yuan had it too easy in his first jump of 1.7 meters, then the 1.85-meter jump brought everyone another kind of pressure at the purely strength level.
“It’s so easy…”
It’s the same evaluation, but both the person who made the evaluation and the tone of the evaluation are completely different from before.
Although Zhang Zhaohe, who was present, also cleared the bar in one go at a height of 1.85 meters, if you ask him if he dares to skip consecutive jumps like Jiang Yuan and try directly at heights of 1.7 meters and 1.85 meters, Zhang Zhaohe knows for sure that he does not dare to do so.
He needs to constantly adjust his ground-pushing strength in previous trial jumps at different heights, so that he can gradually adapt to different horizontal bar heights.
Of course he could do a trial jump with a height gap in the middle like Jiang Yuan did, but he didn't think he could do it as easily as Jiang Yuan.
Originally before the competition, Zhang Zhaohe thought that Jiang Yuan’s strength was probably not as good as his own, but through the performance of these two trial jumps, Zhang Zhaohe began to doubt his judgment.
This Jiang Yuan...
He already has a huge lead in the long jump, so will he also take first place in the high jump qualifying round?
After Jiang Yuan finished his first attempt at jumping 1.85 meters. The remaining 14 contestants who failed to clear the bar in the first round of attempts took part in the second round of attempts.
It should be said that these 14 players are worthy of being junior players carefully trained by various provincial teams. Although 7 of them failed in the first jump, only two of them failed to successfully cross the 1.85-meter bar height in the second and third rounds of trials.
In the end, at a height of 1.85 meters, a total of 13 athletes successfully cleared the bar. After this round, the height of the bar was finally no longer increased in units of 5 centimeters. At the signal of the chief referee, the bar referee raised the bar from 1.85 meters to 1.89 meters. If nothing unexpected happens, this will also be the last time the bar is raised in this high jump qualifying competition.
When the height of the horizontal bar rose, somehow, many people present subconsciously turned their eyes in the direction of Jiang Yuan. After seeing that Jiang Yuan just put on his trousers and jacket, and had no intention of sitting back in the rest area to continue jumping, everyone looked away with relief.
Jiang Yuan probably noticed the gazes of his opponents around him. When he looked up and met Zhang Zhaohe's gaze, he smiled gently in Zhang Zhaohe's direction.
It was clearly just an ordinary and gentle smile, but Zhang Zhaohe trembled inexplicably after seeing Jiang Yuan's smile.
Outside the high jump competition, Su Yu and Zhou Yuang were waiting for Jiang Yuan to appear. It was not until he saw Jiang Yuan's smile that Zhou Yuang touched his chin in confusion: "Hey, Xiao Yu, do you feel that Yuan Zi's condition is different?"
The long wait made Su Yu a little tired, but he still had no intention of leaving. After hearing Zhou Yuan's question, Su Yu turned his gaze to Jiang Yuan again. After a moment, Su Yu said, "He is very happy."
Zhou Yuang:? ? ?
Zhou Yuan looked up at Jiang Yuan in the rest area in confusion, then asked in bewilderment: "Doesn't Yuan Zi look the same as usual?"
When Su Yu heard this, he turned to look at Zhou Yuang, then looked away and stopped answering.
***
On the court, Jiang Yuan was unaware of the conversation between Zhou Yuang and Su Yu outside the court. He was looking at the horizontal bar in front of the sponge bag not far away, as if he was looking at the horizontal bar on the court, but in fact, after his sight touched the horizontal bar, he looked towards a farther direction and the higher sky.
Jiang Yuan was recalling the moment when his body twisted in the air. Time seemed to slow down infinitely at that moment, and the entire sky filled his sight at that moment, beautiful, dreamy and charming.
At that moment, he seemed to have leaped into the sky, then his sight quickly turned from the sky and finally returned to the ground.
Although he has experienced this kind of perspective change countless times during the training in the summer camp, but in today's game, everything seems to be a little different from the past.
At this moment, he suddenly understood Xiaoyu's strong desire to win - exploring a higher world seemed to be quite interesting indeed.
On the field, no one noticed that Jiang Yuan was distracted again. Everyone's attention was focused on the new height jump attempt that was about to begin.
Although the height of 1.89 meters is not the limit for these elite young players in the competition, it is already quite challenging. Even a strong player like Zhang Zhaohe made a mistake in his first attempt at a height of 1.89 meters. In other words, after the bar was raised to 1.89 meters, only two of the 13 young players were lucky enough to clear the bar in one go.
The reason why it was said 'lucky' was that the two players had tried two and three times respectively before they successfully cleared the bar in the previous round of 1.85-meter trial jumps. Their performance of clearing the bar at 1.89 meters in one go in this round surprised even themselves, and they excitedly waved in the direction of their teammates on the scene after clearing the bar.
As these young contestants made mistakes one after another at the 1.89-meter height, the students in the summer camp audience became a little restless.
“Are there so many people who make mistakes at 1.89 meters?”
"Can Jiang Yuan still pass the bar in one go this time?"
"Is that ok? Didn't he pass the 2-meter height limit during the camp test match?"
"But didn't even that Zhang Zhaohe make a mistake?"
"That's right. Jiang Yuan is a human, not a robot. Who can guarantee that he won't make mistakes in every round? But given Jiang Yuan's ability, it shouldn't be difficult for him to jump over a height of 1.89 meters, right?"
The summer camp students present were looking forward to Jiang Yuan's continued magical performance of clearing the pole in one go, but at the same time, as the number of mistakes made by the other players on the field increased, they couldn't help but worry that Jiang Yuan might make mistakes as well.
***
As the longest event of all the events in today's base competition this morning, the 1.89-meter high jump qualifying trial jump is now the last event of all the events.
When Jiang Yuan finally stood in front of the starting line again, it is no exaggeration to say that everyone's eyes were focused on him at this moment.
Almost everyone who had paid attention to the high jump qualifying competition in the morning was thinking about the same question as the summer camp participants - can Jiang Yuan easily pass the bar in this round of trial jumps?
Plop, plop.
This was not Jiang Yuan's nervous heartbeat, but the common heartbeat of everyone present who was watching Jiang Yuan's heartbeat.
The young man who was the focus of everyone's attention raised his hand easily in front of the starting line, and then at the signal of the referee, he started a new round of running steps from the starting line again.
His running start speed was not too fast, but his rhythm was well controlled. As he got closer to the horizontal bar area, his speed became faster and faster. In the last two steps approaching the horizontal bar area, Jiang Yuan's body had accumulated enough lateral force through the running start. At this moment, he had already arrived in front of the horizontal bar, and his left leg, which served as his take-off leg, once again pushed off the ground with all his strength. It was with the power of this foot pushing off the ground that he successfully converted the lateral force accumulated in the running start phase into a vertical extension force that was enough to help him soar into the air.
This powerful explosive force of pushing and stretching sent Jiang Yuan jumping up, and his body easily rose towards the sky. Then he swung his right leg quickly to help himself gain more power for rising. His body posture twisted in mid-air, and as his body rose to the highest point, his body center of gravity easily bypassed the horizontal bar.
Then, he lowered his shoulders and used the strength of his waist, abdomen and hips to allow his lower body to pass the bar in a perfect arc, and finally it was another beautiful and perfect pass!
When Jiang Yuan once again rolled up from the sponge bag, all the audience, contestants and even coaches who had seen his performance couldn't help but applaud him.
"Perfect flying height, perfect passing posture, perfect three-time passing!"
In the coaching area, Zhao Weiping applauded and praised sincerely. After praising, Zhao Weiping once again said to Wang Changan: "Coach Wang, I must apologize again for my previous evaluation - the students of the S Province Sports Team Summer Camp are definitely not what I call "make-up" players. Your summer camp was very successful!"
The coaches from various provincial teams present also praised the performance highly.
In one summer camp, Zhou Yuang, Su Yu and Jiang Yuan emerged. Such a ratio of geniuses made them jealous and they wished they could return to their own team and organize a game right away. However, these coaches actually knew that the S Province Sports Team had hosted many summer camps in a row before welcoming these three talented players who appeared like a blowout in this summer camp. Even if these teams went back and organized new summer camps, they were afraid that they might not be able to achieve such an effect.
"Coach Wang, Coach Liu, Coach Xiao Pei, your S Province Sports Team's luck has finally come!"
***
With Jiang Yuan's final perfect pass, he basically secured the first place in the qualifying round.
Just three jumps to secure the first place ranking.
After seeing Jiang Yuan's results, Zhang Zhaohe's face became serious.
Although it seems that his PB of 2.06 meters is 6 centimeters higher than Jiang Yuan's PB of 2.0 meters, the ability demonstrated by Jiang Yuan in these three trial jumps made Zhang Zhaohe instinctively alert.
This Jiang Yuan, can he really only jump to a height of 2 meters?
Until the end of the qualifying round, Zhang Zhaohe still couldn't get the final answer, because the height of 1.89 meters was enough to eliminate the extra players, leaving a total of 10 high jump finalists.
Therefore, Zhang Zhaohe's doubts about Jiang Yuan's strength can only be kept until the next final.
After completing his last jump, Jiang Yuan put on his trousers and jacket again. After the referee announced the official end of the qualifying round, he had already tidied himself up and walked easily towards the direction of Su Yu on the sidelines.
"Xiaoyu, thank you for your hard work and for keeping me waiting."
Su Yu hummed and looked at him: "Congratulations."
Jiang Yuan received the congratulations and smiled gently: "Thank you, Xiaoyu."
Zhou Yuan smiled and gave Jiang Yuan a big hug after he approached him: "Congratulations, Yuanzi, hey, congratulations to you, me and Xiaoyu, and congratulations to our 303 dormitory for advancing to the finals!"
As the only dormitory in this summer camp whose entire team qualified for the base competition and advanced to the finals of the base competition, they really deserve congratulations. However, after Jiang Yuan's competition finally finished, the celebration between the three of them did not begin - because it was already close to 11:30 in the morning, and the high jump qualifying competition had so many participants and took so long that after Jiang Yuan's competition finished, it was already noon.
The three of them had finals to attend in the afternoon, and seeing that there was not much time left for the lunch break, after finally waiting for Jiang Yuan, the three of them stopped talking nonsense and walked straight towards the cafeteria of the S Province Sports Team.
***
At the same time, the coaches who were eating in the VIP room of the cafeteria talked about another issue.
"Coach Wang, regarding this recommendation quota, how do you plan to use it?"
The young players participating in the U16 National Base Competition do not know that, compared with the weight of winning the prize in this National Base Competition, the "quota" mentioned by the coach is the real top priority of this base competition.
The so-called "quota" refers to the recommended places of the Olympic reserve talent training base under the name of the national team. There may not be many such places for each provincial team. The U16 National Track and Field Base Competition provides 3 additional places for each event. At the same time, the S Province Sports Team, as the organizer of this event, also got the right to recommend an additional 2 places.
What the coach was asking was how the S Province Sports Team planned to use the two additional recommendation rights.
In this competition, the coaches present all saw that Su Yu and Zhou Yuang, two students from the summer camp of the S Province Sports Team, really had great potential. But from the perspective and experience of the coaches present, it was impossible for either Su Yu or Zhou Yuang to compete for the top three individual recommendation places in the afternoon final.
After all, in the 100-meter race, Ye Minghao and Jiang Ruohui alone have firmly occupied two of the top three places, and among the remaining contestants there is also an outstanding contestant like Tang Xianwen.
With this calculation, neither Su Yu nor Zhou Yuang has much chance of winning the top three. If Wang Changan really thinks highly of them, he would have used the extra recommendation quota to recommend them.
In fact, these two places are not entirely for the men's 100m event. In addition to the men's team, there is also a women's team in the S Province Sports Team. In addition to the 100m, there are also a series of events such as 200m, 400m, hurdles, high jump, long jump, etc. If Wang Changan really uses the two extra places directly on Su Yu and Zhou Yuang, I am afraid that the coaches of other events will also be dissatisfied.
After hearing the coach's question, Wang Changan paused and said, "Let's wait and see how the game goes this afternoon."
"Take a look first?"
The coaches present couldn't help but laugh: "For the afternoon competition, if you say that Jiang Yuan from your summer camp can win the championship in the long jump and high jump, we all agree, but Su Yu and Zhou Yuang want to get the top three in the afternoon competition? That's a bit difficult."
"Yes, Jiang Yuan's strength is indeed outstanding, but Su Yu and Zhou Yuang still have a certain gap compared to Ye Minghao, Jiang Ruohui, Tang Xianwen and others."
"If they want to get a recommendation from the reserve talent base, they can only rely on the extra recommendation from the S Province Sports Team in your hands, Coach Wang, right?"
"Indeed, but you have to think again about whether to recommend them, Coach Wang. After all, Su Yu and Zhou Yuang look good now, but whether they can continue to improve in the future is actually a question..."
The coaches did not restrain their conversation, so the noise naturally spread to the outside of the cafeteria's private room. The private rooms in the S Province Sports Team's cafeteria were seldom used, so the coaches were unaware that the soundproofing of the rooms was not very good.
So without the coaches knowing, their conversation reached the ears of Su Yu, Zhou Yuan and Jiang Yuan who also came to the cafeteria to get their meals.
Listening to the coaches' conversation in the private room, Su Yu frowned and paused for a moment, then turned and left with the food tray in his arms.
Zhou Yuang thought Su Yu was angry, so he hurried after him. However, after Su Yu put the plate on the table, Zhou Yuang found that the boy in front of him did not seem to be obviously angry.
Su Yu calmly sat down on the dining chair, raised his head and looked at Zhou Yuan and Jiang Yuan in confusion: "What are you waiting for?"
Su Yu said word by word: "Eat and rest."
At this point, Zhou Yuang noticed the sharpness in Su Yu's eyes, and heard him say -
“There will be another tough battle in the final in the afternoon – I am looking forward to it.”
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