Chapter 34
On October 3, the weather in S City was clear and cloudless.
The last stop of this year's National Track and Field Grand Prix, S City, also kicked off on this day.
Wang Mingyang is a local track and field enthusiast in S City. It was a rare opportunity for a Grand Prix race to be held in S City, so he certainly would not miss it. However, he did not expect that on the National Day holiday, his cousin suddenly contacted him on WeChat, asking him how to buy tickets for the race, and then offered him a "purchasing service" for more than ten tickets.
Early this morning, Wang Yangming took more than ten tickets and stood at the west gate audience entrance of the sports center stadium like a ticket scalper. He finally waited for his cousin to show up, but a group of junior high school students followed his cousin.
Wang Yangming looked at these junior high school students and was shocked: "Did the school assign you to come and watch the track and field competition?"
"Where?" Zhong Wen took the tickets from his brother and shared them with his classmates, explaining, "My deskmate and his brother are here to participate in the competition. We are in the same class, and I am here to cheer them on!"
Listening to his cousin's explanation, Wang Yangming felt that this was even more mysterious: "Huh? Your classmate? You are only in the second grade this year, right? 14 or 15 years old? Doesn't your mother praise you as a top student in No. 12 Middle School every day? I haven't seen you go to a sports school?"
Zhong Wen rolled his eyes at his brother after hearing this: "14 years old! Can't you even remember how old your dear cousin is? It doesn't matter if it's not a sports school. The two who came to participate in the competition are the top students in our grade."
When Wang Yangming heard this, he was even more confused - what the hell, the academic genius and the top student don’t go to school properly, but come to participate in the National Track and Field Grand Prix?
Thinking of this, Wang Yangming waved his hands again and again and said, "Oh, that's not right. The National Track and Field Grand Prix is a Level II event. To participate in this level of competition, you must have participated in a Level III event first and have achieved the required results in the past 12 months. Are you really bringing these two students to participate in the main competition instead of a warm-up match?"
As he spoke, Wang Yangming reviewed it carefully and shook his head again and again: "No, no, I looked at today's schedule, there is no warm-up match..."
Zhong Wen was counting the tickets when he heard his brother's mumbling. He didn't understand the difference between warm-up matches and non-warm-up matches. He just knew that Jiang Yuan and Su Yu were going to participate in the competition today.
After he was sure that the tickets in his hand were correct, Zhong Wen handed them to the students one by one. While handing out tickets, he reminded them: "Are the banners ready? And the whistles and throat treasures are also ready! Make sure that when Jiang Yuan and Su Yu come on stage, the cheers will resound through the sky!"
A group of students who followed them immediately patted their chests and said, "Do you need me to tell you? Come on, we can do it!"
After all the tickets were distributed, Zhong Wen turned around and said to his brother before leaving: "Brother, my classmates and I are leaving first. I came all the way from my hometown today. I have to go back after watching the game in the afternoon."
Having said that, Zhong Wen waved to his brother and ran away.
Wang Yangming was still in a daze when he saw his cousin and his classmates suddenly disappear. He muttered, "These kids are just like monkeys," and said to himself, "Why wait until the afternoon to rush back? Two 14-year-old second-year junior high school students should be done with the morning preliminaries."
After thinking about it for a few seconds, Wang Yangming also started to walk in with his ticket, muttering: "Why are you running so fast? We bought the tickets together and we're sitting together."
***
The S City Sports Center Stadium is a large sports venue that can accommodate 30,000 spectators at the same time. At this time, spectators have entered the auditorium one after another and taken their seats. The atmosphere on the scene is not very warm for the time being, and the auditorium even seems a bit noisy.
In the exclusive lounge for the athletes of the S Province Sports Team in the stadium, as players participating in a formal competition for the first time, Su Yu, Zhou Yuang and Jiang Yuan followed the staff of the Provincial Sports Team to the lounge and finally got rid of the onlookers who watched them as magical animals all the way.
In the lounge, Lin Jingwu from the S Province Sports Team saw Zhou Yuang's face full of 'escaped disaster' and said with a smile: "What? Can't you stand being stared at all the way?"
Zhou Yuang immediately spread his hands and said exaggeratedly: "Of course I am. I just got off the car and walked all the way in. I am so grateful that my black skin is being mistaken for white skin."
Lin Jingwu complained to him jokingly: "Forget it, people are going to see Su Yu, but you and Jiang Yuan are two tall guys. If you didn't say anything, I wouldn't know you were only 14 years old."
As soon as these words were spoken, laughter suddenly broke out in the lounge of the S Province Sports Team.
Just as Lin Jingwu said, when Wang Changan first brought Jiang Yuan, Zhou Yuang and Su Yu to their team to introduce them, the athletes of the provincial track and field team only stared at Su Yu, and then complained that Wang Changan was a beast, saying that such a young child could be sent to participate in the Grand Prix.
As a result, after Wang Changan's speechless introduction, I found out that Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang were actually "such young children".
There was nothing that could be done about it. Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang were both over 1.80 meters tall, and they were in good physical condition and slim, so it was absolutely no problem to say that they were seventeen or eighteen years old.
After everyone laughed and joked, they still asked with concern: "What's wrong? How do you feel?"
Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yuang both said that it was okay. When everyone focused their attention on Su Yu, Su Yu came back to his senses, looked at everyone present, and nodded silently: "No problem."
He said there was no problem, but everyone present could see that Su Yu seemed absent-minded at the moment, and no one knew what he was thinking about. No matter how he looked at him, it didn't look like "there was no problem".
Only Zhou Yuang stroked his chin and stared at Su Yu for a few more seconds. He felt that there seemed to be something wrong with Su Yu, but he did not look like he was in a bad state.
After he took another look at Jiang Yuan's calm expression, he became even more certain - his judgment of Su Yu might not be very accurate, but Jiang Yuan's judgment of Su Yu was absolutely certain.
Since Jiang Yuan doesn't think there's anything wrong with Su Yu's current condition, then there's a high probability that Su Yu is really fine at the moment.
However, Zhou Yuang's feeling was ultimately just his own feeling. He didn't say it out loud, and the contestants around him didn't ask him about it.
After all, which athlete has not been troubled by problems with his or her competitive state during his or her career?
In their opinion, Su Yu was probably young and it was his first time participating in an event of the National Track and Field Grand Prix level, so he looked a little confused when he arrived at the scene.
But at this moment, no one can persuade the athletes about their state. They still have to wait until they can think it through and get through this hurdle. So the athletes from the S Province Sports Team just smiled and didn't say anything more.
The National Track and Field Grand Prix is a domestic Level II event, only below the National Track and Field Championships and the National Games. It is also the highest-level series of domestic track and field events. Its complete schedule is of course not just on the 3rd. The three days from the 3rd to the 5th are the complete Grand Prix schedule. The reason why Jiang Yuan only told his classmates about the 3rd was because it happened that Su Yu and all of his schedules were scheduled for the 3rd.
Although they had just arrived at the scene, it was already close to 8 o'clock in the morning. Soon the first long jump qualifying round of the morning would begin, and almost at the same time as the long jump qualifying round, the men's 100-meter preliminaries would also begin.
So at this moment, after greeting Su Yu and the others, the athletes of the S Province Sports Team in the entire locker room quickly began to pack their sports bags. After a simple packing, at the urging of the S Province Sports Team staff, they quickly went to the on-site preparation area and warm-up venue.
Su Yu and his companions were not very familiar with the entry procedures of the Grand Prix, but Lin Jingwu took good care of them and did not forget to take Su Yu and the other two with him when he left.
In an instant, the lounge that had been quite lively just now was mostly empty again, and Su Yu, Zhou Yuan and Jiang Yuan finally followed the footsteps of the main group, from the backcourt lounge to the long competition corridor and arrived at the huge standard stadium outside the corridor.
As the Grand Prix drew closer, Su Yu had noticed that he had been distracted these past few days.
It’s not that he was nervous, but he couldn’t help but think - he was really going to step onto the professional competition field. What would it feel like when he actually stood on the field?
As the competition time approached, the amount of training arranged by Pei Dingshan for them gradually decreased. The emergence of more free time also caused Su Yu to lose consciousness more often. He could only alleviate his absent-minded state by devoting himself more to the study of various knowledge.
Before today, Su Yu was also thinking whether he was too concerned about the upcoming game, but during this process, Pei Dingshan did not stop him. He just took him to watch a large number of game videos and made different game analyses with him.
Until today.
When Su Yu followed his teammates through the long athlete tunnel in the backcourt and crossed the dividing line between the tunnel and the stadium, the noisy voices enveloped him at that moment. The noisy sounds gave him the feeling that he was already standing on a real stadium, and the noise and discussions of the audience, as well as the occasional cheers and applause from a small group in the distance...
These voices came together and seemed to completely ignite a certain power in his body at this moment.
Jiang Yuan had been observing Su Yu's condition. When he noticed the change in his condition, he smiled and asked, "Are you ready?"
Su Yu looked up at the huge arena, then nodded firmly: "Ready."
***
In the audience seats, near the 100-meter finish line and the high jump competition venue, students from Class 1, Grade 2 of No. 12 Middle School are gathered here. Some of them are paying attention to when Su Yu and Jiang Yuan will take the stage, some are taking photos and posting them on Tieba, indicating that they have arrived at the scene to check in, and some are asking other classmates in the WeChat group and Penguin group where they are.
After all, because a high-rise building was built in the forum before, many students from No. 12 Middle School who did not travel during the National Day holiday expressed that they would definitely come to the scene to cheer. As a result, these students did not expect that the Grand Prix stadium was so large, with tens of thousands of spectator seats alone. Therefore, after the students from No. 12 Middle School, who were only two or three hundred people, dispersed, they were like fish entering the sea and could not be found at all.
Just as the students were looking around, someone first discovered the S Province Sports Team.
"Wow! Look, look! It's Su Yu and Jiang Yuan!"
"Where is it? Let me see!"
"Wow, it's really them. The other guy with them must be Zhou Yuang, right?"
"To be honest, Jiang Yuan looks quite handsome in this sportswear, but Su Yu looks really small. What's going on? He looks like a child who has strayed into the adult world..."
"Is our God of Study going to compete with these people around him soon? Damn, our God of Study looks really weak. Is he really okay?"
Wang Yangming was chatting with some track and field enthusiasts he had just met when he heard his cousin and his classmates quarreling not far away.
The guy I just met was very curious: "What's going on? There are so many students today? I saw quite a few in Area F when I first entered the venue. They seemed to be saying that they bought the wrong tickets and their seats were not good, so they wanted to exchange seats with people in Area G. It seems that they are classmates with these students?"
Wang Yangming was not sure either, but he still said, "I guess. These are my cousin and his classmates, all top students from No. 12 Middle School. Among the contestants from the S Province Sports Team participating in the competition today, two are from their class. Two are students from the key classes of No. 12 Middle School. They are probably also well-known figures in the school. They are all here to cheer them on."
The older brother next to him was surprised: "The top students from No. 12 Middle School are participating in the competition? That's incredible! But how did they get the qualification? I remember that if you want to participate in the Level II competition, you have to go through the Level III and Level IV competitions first? And for the Grand Prix, it should also require that the contestants have achieved a national first-class score in the past 12 months, right?"
Wang Yangming shook his head. "I don't understand that either, but I remember that the venue of the tournament always has 10 extra places for players. Maybe they got in through these places?"
"Oh, that's possible."
At the competition site, there were quite a few people like Wang Yangming who were discussing the quota for young athletes. After noticing these young athletes, some track and field fans in the track and field kingdom raised the question of whether the number of young athletes in this competition was large and whether their eligibility was in compliance with regulations. But soon, with the live broadcast of the S City leg of the National Track and Field Grand Prix on CCTV Video, the question of whether Su Yu and other young athletes were eligible to participate was answered.
At this time, in the Guji video live broadcast room——
Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming are the two most well-known commentators in domestic track and field events at present. They have also been commentary partners for many years. They have commented on countless domestic and international competitions together. Therefore, although the live broadcast has already started, the communication between the two is still very calm.
Tian Ruhui scanned the live broadcast screen in front of him and said with a smile: "The attendance rate of this S City race is almost 70%. It can be seen that the atmosphere of track and field events in S City is still very good."
Zhou Jiming laughed and complained: "Teacher Tian should still consider the impact of the National Day Golden Week on this competition. This is mainly because the last stop of this race started late enough."
The reason why Zhou Jiming said this is that generally speaking, the outdoor season of track and field events is between April and October every year, and relatively high-level events such as the National Track and Field Grand Prix are basically over before mid-September. The reason why the time will be postponed this year is because this year is the National Games held every four years. In the National Games from the end of August to the beginning of September, outstanding athletes from all provinces and cities across the country went to the National Games, so the schedule of the Grand Prix was postponed.
Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming chatted easily with each other until the men's long jump and men's 100m preliminaries were about to start, then Tian Ruhui turned the topic back to the competition field in front of them.
After flipping through the list of athletes in his hand, Tian Ruhui smiled and said, "Speaking of which, many track and field enthusiasts should have noticed that there are a group of younger athletes in the S City Division of the National Track and Field Grand Prix this time - for example, in the men's long jump qualifying competition and the men's 100-meter preliminaries that are about to begin, there will be corresponding young athletes to appear."
Zhou Jiming naturally knew what Tian Ruhui meant by bringing up this topic. In the past few days, there have been track and field fans sending private messages to them on Weibo, asking about the backgrounds of these young athletes.
Thinking of this, Zhou Jiming smiled and said, "Yes, speaking of which, I'm afraid many friends don't know these young athletes very well. Some track and field fans also speculate whether these young athletes are selected to participate in the competition. In fact, there are of course athletes who are selected to participate, but for example, the two young athletes registered by our S Province Sports Team, Jiang Yuan and Su Yu, participated in the National U16 Track and Field Base Competition held in S City a month ago. Among them, Jiang Yuan achieved a good result of 7.37 meters in the long jump and 2.06 meters in the high jump, and Su Yu won a good result of 10.93 seconds in the 100-meter final."
"There is also Jiang Ruohui from Province G, who also won the qualification to participate in our Grand Prix with his own strength. As the saying goes, the waves behind push the waves ahead. From the results of these talented young players, we can see that our next generation of track and field seedlings are already growing strong!"
In the live broadcast room, the conversation between Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming brought to the public the reason why there are so many young players in this Grand Prix.
There were also spectators at the scene who were watching the Guji live broadcast room while waiting for the competition. It was from this that they learned about Jiang Yuan and Su Yu’s PB results.
It seemed like Wang Yangming and the track and field fan next to him suddenly realized what was going on after watching the content in the live broadcast room.
"It's incredible. Your cousin's two classmates both have really impressive grades?"
Wang Yangming also nodded. They had previously thought that Jiang Yuan and Su Yu were both wildcard players, but they didn't expect that they were both already top-level U16 players.
However, no matter how outstanding Jiang Yuan and Su Yu are, they are only top players at the U16 level. Most track and field fans still think that players in the U16 age group are too young, and their physical conditions cannot be compared with adult players. After all, there are only a few U16 players who can win a bronze medal in the 100-meter race like Ye Minghao.
Besides——
Wang Yangming pointed in the direction of the long jump and high jump and said, "Let's not talk about anything else. Let's just talk about Jiang Yuan and Su Yu from our sports team. They were able to qualify for the Grand Prix, which was really close. For example, for the long jump and high jump, I remember the standards for the first grade in the country were 7.30 meters and 2.05 meters, right? Jiang Yuan's long jump was stronger, 7.37 meters, and his high jump was just barely above the line, only 1 centimeter higher than the first grade standard. As for Su Yu's 100 meters, let alone the first grade standard for the country, 10.93 seconds, and he just ran 10.93 seconds."
At this point, Wang Yangming shook his head: "Based on their performance, it's no problem for them to come to the Grand Prix to experience the competition, but if they want to advance to the finals, then there's no hope."
Perhaps to prove the firmness of his own ideas, Wang Yangming said seriously: "If both of them can enter the finals, I will take off my head and let my cousin kick it like a ball!"
Nearby, Zhong Wen had just finished chatting with his classmates when he heard his cousin's 'violent' declaration. He was also a reckless person, so he made a trumpet shape with his hands and shouted towards the stadium: "Jiang Yuan - Su Yu - good luck in the preliminaries!!! My cousin said that if you two make it to the finals, he will take off his head and let me kick it like a ball!!!"
Wang Yangming:……?
Wang Yangming, who was chatting with his brothers nearby, did not expect that his cousin had such a trick. At this moment, because the game had not started yet, most of the spectators around were chatting with their friends or watching Jigu live broadcasts and browsing forums. As a result, they heard such a loud and powerful shout.
Everyone looked around.
"Huh? Who is who? Who is Jiang Yuan and who is Su Yu?"
"It seems that they are two junior players from our S Province Sports Team, sophomores from No. 12 Middle School, and they are only 14 years old!"
"Wow, you are well-informed, eh?"
"Of course not. Look, there are many junior high school students around here. They are all their classmates, coming to cheer them on."
Even on the field, because Zhong Wen's brother bought a good seat, he was very close to Su Yu and Jiang Yuan, so at once even the athletes in the high jump, long jump and 100-meter preliminaries heard the roar, and many people laughed at that time.
After hearing the voice, Jiang Yuan and Su Yu both looked in the direction of Zhong Wen, and then they saw a huge banner hung on the guardrail crossbar in front of that location, which clearly read - Come on, Jiang Yuan! Come on Su Yu! Class 1, Grade 2, No. 12 Middle School is proud of you!
Even Su Yu, who usually looked sickly and unkind, had his ears slightly red after seeing the banner.
On the other side of the stands, the two couples, Su Hongfeng, Lin Xian, Jiang Mingchuan and Chen Yuting, also laughed after seeing the banner not far away.
"It seems that Xiaoyuan and Xiaoyu are quite popular in the class?"
***
The excitement in the audience seats was still going on, and on the field, in the men's 100-meter sprint, after completing the registration and confirming his group, Su Yu did not warm up for the time being. Instead, under the guidance of the sports team staff, he returned to the lounge of the S Province Sports Team in the backcourt - the reason was simple, although the men's 100-meter preliminaries were about to start, there were a total of 16 groups and 144 contestants in the preliminaries.
Even if the preliminaries are conducted with 9 athletes in each group, the entire men's 100m preliminaries will take nearly 80 minutes. Su Yu was in the 15th group in the preliminaries, so before the official start of the race, the staff suggested that he return to the backcourt lounge to rest and start warming up at the appropriate time.
Unlike Su Yu's situation, the men's long jump qualifying round officially kicked off at the signal of the referee after a brief preparation.
Since men's long jump is the first event to start qualifying rounds in the current competition, Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming promptly turned the topic to the long jump in the Jigu live broadcast room.
"Dear audience, what is going on now is the men's long jump qualifying competition of the National Track and Field Grand Prix S City. In this competition, a total of 23 athletes from various provinces and cities across the country will compete for 12 places in the finals."
"In this men's long jump competition, there are both famous athletes and newcomers. Let's take a look at what wonderful performances these veterans and newcomers can bring us in the men's long jump qualifying competition later!"
In the audience, seeing Jiang Yuan's match start first, the students of Class 1, Grade 2 of No. 12 Middle School immediately became excited, waving their own small flags and some homemade banners, looking like fans of Su Yu and Jiang Yuan. While Zhong Wen was broadcasting live to the students who couldn't come to the scene, he also shouted to his brother: "Brother, don't forget, kick your head like a ball!"
While they were chatting and laughing, the first competitor in the long jump competition had already stepped onto the field.
Seeing this player coming on stage, Wang Yangming and a passerby beside him were clicking their tongues: "Isn't this Gao Xu from the H Province Track and Field Team? He's the first to appear? What's the order of draws? Isn't this adding pressure to the players behind him?"
The Gao Xu they were talking about was the famous athlete who won the national long jump championship with a score of 8.13 meters in the long jump event of the National Games track and field event not long ago.
It was indeed as Wang Yangming said, after seeing Gao Xu being the first to appear on stage, many contestants became visibly nervous.
Even in the live broadcast room of Jigu Video, Tian Ruhui shook his head slightly after seeing Gao Xu appear on the stage: "Today's lottery order is not very friendly to the subsequent players."
Zhou Jiming on the side said, "In fact, being the first to appear is not too friendly to Gao Xu. After all, his condition is not yet hot. But Gao Xu is an experienced player after all. His mentality and steady performance are also one of his personal characteristics. Moreover, this is only a qualifying round at this stage. I believe that even if he is the first to appear, Gao Xu can still perform well..."
While Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming were chatting, Gao Xu had already stood in front of the starting line for the run-up. After the referee signaled Gao Xu that he could jump, he started his run-up with a vigorous step.
Just as Tian Ruhui and others explained, although he was the first to compete, Gao Xu still maintained his steady performance and achieved a good result of 7.93 meters in his first jump - with this result, it was basically ensured that Gao Xu would not need to make the subsequent two qualifying trial jumps.
At this moment, in the audience, after seeing Gao Xu's first jump result, the students from No. 12 Middle School couldn't help but gasp.
"What the hell, 7.93 meters?!"
"…Help, is this a result that a human can achieve?"
"I'm so numb. My previous best result was 3.9 meters..."
After all, these students are still only junior high school students. They usually pay more attention to their study and life in school, and have basically no understanding of track and field events. Although they all came to cheer for Jiang Yuan and Su Yu, they only knew that Jiang Yuan and Su Yu were awesome. But it is not clear whether their achievements are as good as those of adults.
Wang Yangming, who was standing nearby, saw the stunned looks on the faces of the students from No. 12 Middle School, but he had no intention of adding insult to injury. He just said, "Your classmate named Jiang Yuan, his PB... Oh, his best long jump result was 7.37 meters, right? This result is actually very good, but it is still a little behind that of adult athletes."
"If I remember correctly, in the previous few rounds, in order to advance to the long jump finals, you had to jump at least 7.45 meters. Your classmate probably has a tough time."
"But it doesn't matter. He is only 14 years old. At this age, it is already very strong for him to be able to come to the Grand Prix and experience the atmosphere of this top national competition."
Wang Yangming comforted his cousin and patted him on the shoulder.
At this moment in the competition, just as he said, the strength of these adult players is indeed quite outstanding. So far, the worst result in the first jump is 7.39 meters, and there are already as many as 10 players on the field.
That is to say, among these 10 athletes, the weakest one had a first jump of 7.39 meters.
It is conceivable how difficult it will be for Jiang Yuan to advance to the finals.
The students in the audience who were originally cheering excitedly now became a little depressed, and they all felt that what Zhong Wen's cousin said was quite right.
Zhong Wen, on the other hand, stopped thinking: "What are you doing? Jiang Yuan is not panicking even when he plays in the game himself, but we are running out of gas? Besides, why are you listening to my brother? The head on his neck is still on it. Just wait, if Jiang Yuan and Su Yu advance, I will see what he will do."
Having said this, Zhong Wen once again led the students present to shout "Come on Jiang Yuan!" At this time, Jiang Yuan, who had been waited for a long time by many No. 12 Middle School students, stepped onto the field.
When all the students saw Jiang Yuan coming to the starting line, there was a loud cheer at the scene. Even Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming in the live broadcast room reintroduced Jiang Yuan on the field.
"This athlete Jiang Yuan is only 14 years old this year. He is the youngest athlete in the long jump and high jump events in this Grand Prix. Before this, his long jump PB was 7.37 meters. Although he still has some distance to advance to the long jump final, I still hope he can perform well in the qualifying round!"
As Tian Ruhui finished his introduction, Zhou Jiming looked at Jiang Yuan on the field and said, "Jiang Yuan started his run-up—oh! A very beautiful jump!"
On the competition field, even though all the players in front of him were stronger and had better results than his PB, this 14-year-old player always maintained a calm mentality and started his first jump in the qualifying round with ease.
Then, under the gaze of everyone, his take-off leg stepped steadily on the springboard, and his body completed a very perfect stretch and move in the air - after he used the power of his hips to draw a superior long arc in the air, he finally landed in the sand pit with an effortless posture.
At this moment, the audience, contestants, and Tian Ruhui and Zhou Jiming in the live broadcast room all fell into a brief silence.
——What’s going on? This Jiang Yuan...
Isn’t it said that his long jump PB is only 7.37 meters? Why does it seem like the distance of his jump just now... is more than that? !
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
