The few minutes before the official announcement of the last set of semi-final results were the most torturous moments in the hearts of the Chinese players and all the Chinese spectators who were paying close attention to the competition.
Zhou Tianjue's final result in this game will determine who between Ye Jun and him can enter the finals.
In the area where the Chinese players' seats were located, everyone was silent at this moment. The noisy sounds in the huge stadium seemed to have nothing to do with this place. In the seats, Qiu Zhongwen, Zheng Wensheng and the cross-hurdle coaching staff of the national team were silent for a moment.
Ye Jun and Zhou Tianjue were both ranked third in their respective groups. Among the remaining players, only the top two players could advance to the finals. Before Ye Jun's ranking, there was already a player named Train from the second group of the semi-finals.
Qiu Zhongwen sighed and looked at the large screen on site, waiting for the release of the final statistical data.
Whether it is Ye Jun or Zhou Tianjue, this time, it is destined that two Chinese athletes will enter the final circle of the 110-meter hurdles event. This should have been a cause for joy, but at this moment, there is inevitably a hint of sadness.
In the live broadcast room of the sports channel, Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan were also expressing their feelings.
Zhang Jing just gave a brief account of Ye Jun and Zhou Tianjue's historical achievements and life stories to the audience watching the live broadcast of the game.
"Both runners are excellent athletes from our country. No matter which one makes it to the final, they will once again break the record for Chinese athletes qualifying for the Olympic 110-meter hurdles finals!"
"Yes, in the track and field events of this Tokyo Olympics, we have broken many of our own records, including qualifying for the 100m finals, which was a breakthrough, and Su Zhe won the 100m bronze medal. In addition, all of our athletes advanced to the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles, and the number of people who qualified for the finals of the 110m hurdles was refreshed. Each of these achievements and breakthroughs is the result of our athletes' continuous struggle and hard work!"
"In any event, any athlete has gone through unimaginable hardships for the Olympics, for the dream of sports and for our glory. Regardless of whether they make it to the finals or win medals, they all deserve our sincere admiration!"
In the rest area for retired athletes, Ye Jun had already returned his clothes and was sitting very calmly on a bench with Su Zhe, watching the live broadcast on the big TV screen.
Holness, this guy, never knew how to read people's faces. He patted Ye Jun on the shoulder and said seriously: "Hey, big guy, you're a little faster than before!"
Ye Jun was staring at the big TV screen in a daze. When Holness patted his head, he turned around with a smile on his face and thanked Holness for praising him.
Holness looked at Ye Jun with some confusion: "Why are you saying thank you? Although you ran a little faster, you still can't catch up with me now!"
…
Holness's answer broke the solemn silence between the three people and made Ye Jun, who had been lost in thought, relax again.
Although he has been an athlete for more than ten years and his psychological quality is definitely not bad, when the Olympic finals, the highest hall of all athletes' dreams, may open its doors to him, how could he really not have any expectations and worries?
After all, it is the arena that every athlete dreams of stepping onto.
After a brief exchange among a few people, the on-site referee team had already completed the final score statistics.
As the host introduced the event, the contestants' scores were also projected onto the large screen on site.
On the sports channel, Zhang Jing and his teammate began reading out the results of the final semi-final: "First place, Lister (USA) 12.99 (wind speed -0.1m/s), second place, Gomez (Brazil) 13.11 (wind speed -0.1m/s) refreshed his personal PB, third place, Zhou Tianjue (China), 13.19 (wind speed -0.1m/s) refreshed his personal PB, fourth place, Andre (UK) 13.19 (wind speed -0.1m/s) refreshed his personal PB..."
When the final results are announced to everyone, it will also be announced who will enter the finals.
The audience gave the warmest and most sincere applause to every contestant present.
At the finish line, Andre, who arrived at the finish line almost at the same time as Zhou Tian, pulled his hair in frustration. A difference of just a few thousandths of a second made him lose the qualification to enter the Olympic finals!
Lister faced the camera, raised his right hand again, and raised his index finger - his result in this game was not only the first in the third group of the semi-finals, but also the first in the overall ranking of the semi-finals.
In the rest area, Holness immediately understood the meaning of Lister's first-place declaration. He scratched the tip of his nose with his thumb and felt a little unhappy with Lister's performance.
Su Zhe looked at Ye Jun hesitantly. After seeing the final results, Ye Jun seemed unusually calm, which made Su Zhe a little worried.
As if he noticed Su Zhe's gaze, Ye Jun turned around and looked at Su Zhe with a smile: "Okay, why are you staring at me like that?"
Su Zhe frowned, not knowing what to say at this moment. On the contrary, Ye Jun was very straightforward.
"Okay, pack up your things. When Brother Jue comes back, we'll be ready to go back. Don't think too much. You two...especially you, you have two tough battles to fight tomorrow."
After a pause, Ye Jun suddenly smiled and said, "Besides, just because I don't have a chance in this Olympics doesn't mean I can't compete in the next one."
? !
Hearing what Ye Jun said, Su Zhe widened his eyes in surprise: "But..."
"It's nothing." Ye Jun waved his hands calmly.
While waiting for the final results to be announced, he had been thinking about this.
He originally planned to retire gradually after the World Championships a year later, but over the past year, he has had a clear sense of his personal condition. He can feel that his performance and training status are indeed constantly breaking through.
Before last year, it would have been difficult for him to even make it to the 2021 World Championships. However, since the second half of last year, he has been in his golden period after his performance exploded, both in terms of performance and personal condition.
If, under these circumstances, he chooses to retire after the 2021 World Championships... he will definitely not be able to convince himself.
Give it a try!
While waiting for the results, Ye Jun had these words cross his mind.
At this time, he has decisively abandoned his plan to retire in 21 years, and is preparing to try to see how far he can go in the final stages of his career.
Ye Jun looked at Su Zhe and smiled gently but firmly, saying, "I want to give it a try, not only to leave no regrets in the Olympics, but also to leave no regrets in my career."
In the audience area for Chinese players, Qiu Zhongwen and others applauded and congratulated Chou Tien-jue on his achievement, but Zheng Wensheng and others couldn't help feeling a little regretful whenever they thought of Ye Jun.
Lu Fei took a look at the status of several people, and then said calmly: "Ye Jun is in his prime now. I think he will be able to run for a few more years. If he fails this time, he may have hope in the next one."
Seeing that everyone was looking at him in surprise, Lu Fei shook his head and without further explanation, he stood up first, ready to meet up with the athletes and return to the Olympic Village.
Regardless, in today’s semi-finals, Su Zhe and Zhou Tianjue’s successful entry into the finals is good news worth writing about!
On domestic Weibo, the public who watched the game were very satisfied with the result of this semi-final.
【#Olympic 110m hurdles semifinals# Ahhh! In the three 110m hurdles semifinals, Su Zhe was the first in his group, and the other two athletes were third in their respective groups. Our athletes are so awesome!!!】
【#110m hurdles##Tokyo Olympics#I watched three Olympic 110m hurdles semi-finals early in the morning. This kind of speed competition is really exciting and tense. When the athletes ran the 110m hurdles, I felt that I dared not breathe. It was really amazing! Especially Su Zhe's group. When I saw him get first place, I really screamed on the spot! ! ! 】
【#Olympic 110m hurdles semi-final# Ah, when I heard the commentary about athlete Ye Jun, I felt so sad. His experience sounded so difficult. In the end, his result was a little worse than Zhou Tianjue's, and he didn't make the final... It's such a pity. Why are our own national team members fighting for the spot? 】
On the Internet, because of the 110-meter hurdles semi-final, people have once again started a heated discussion about this event.
The General Administration of Sport, the Athletics Administration Center and all major official media outlets updated the final competition results and promotion lists online the moment the results were announced.
Official Weibo of the National Track and Field Team: [#Tokyo Olympics##110m Hurdles Semi-finals#In the semi-finals of the Olympic 110m hurdles held on the morning of August 5th, Japan time, our athlete @Su Zhe won first place in the semi-finals group with a score of 13.06 seconds and advanced directly to the finals. At the same time, our athletes @Ye Jun and @Zhou Tianjue respectively won third place in their semi-final groups. Among them, @Zhou Tianjue ranked eighth in the total score of the semi-finals and also entered the finals! This is also the first time in the history of our 110m hurdles event that two athletes have entered the Olympic finals at the same time! ]
In addition to the official Weibo of the national team, the official Weibo of the provincial team to which Su Zhe belongs, the S Provincial Sports Team, also happily published a congratulatory blog post.
【#Tokyo Olympics##110m hurdles semi-finals# Warm congratulations to our province's athlete @Su Zhe for advancing to the finals with the first place in the semi-final group in today's Olympic 110m hurdles semi-finals! He is not only the first medalist in the men's 100m event in our country, but also the first athlete in the world to cross the 100m and 110m hurdles events and enter the finals of both events at the same time! 】
After the official Weibo account of the S Province Sports Team released this news, many sports enthusiasts in S Province ran to the official Weibo account and celebrated together with flowers.
While domestic netizens were celebrating happily, the national track and field team in Japan returned to the Olympic Village. Lu Fei took Su Zhe and members of the coaching staff to the conference room to prepare for a meeting with Su Yinsheng and other sprint coaches.
The topic of today's meeting is nothing but the connection between the track and field relay race and the 110-meter hurdles on the second day.
There are a total of 16 teams participating in the 4*100m event. The preliminaries will be divided into two groups. The top three teams in each preliminaries will be selected, and the top two teams in the two remaining groups will be selected. A total of 8 teams will enter the finals.
The only good news at the moment is that the Chinese team has been divided into the first group to compete. After the competition, they can have a short break and then switch to the 110-meter hurdles competition.
But this so-called breathing time is far from enough for Su Zhe to face the 110-meter hurdles final next...
Lu Fei tapped the table with his index finger and asked the first question: "Two consecutive races will definitely affect Su Zhe's final performance in the 110-meter hurdles tomorrow. Can the sprint group use a backup candidate in the preliminaries?"
Su Yinsheng rubbed his forehead with his index finger and frowned, "I really want to! In the last Olympic preliminaries, the team ranked 8th in the preliminaries had a score of 38.17 seconds."
After a pause, Su Yinsheng shook his head and said, "In last year's World Championships, our team's preliminary result was 38.35 seconds, and the final result was 38.18 seconds... If we use this result as a reference, we won't even make it to the finals of tomorrow's 4*100m event!"
As Su Zhe's father, if there was a possibility of activating the backup plan, why would he want to pit his son? But from the perspective of a coach, it is really difficult to make a final decision between the 4*100m preliminaries and the 110m hurdles finals.
The relay team does have reserve members, such as Wang Ming, Wang Qin, Qiu Xinchu and Jiang Zhongyan...but these athletes have a shortcoming. If the competition goes smoothly, it doesn't matter. If the competition does not go well, they cannot serve as the helmsman to turn the tide.
If Su Zhe chooses to give up the 4*100m event, and if the relay team lacks a core member and fails to advance to the finals, Su Zhe will most likely be accused of individual heroism and of not paying attention to the team event.
Choosing the 4*100m event will inevitably affect his performance in the 110m hurdles event.
After hearing the data reported by Su Yinsheng, Lu Fei also shut up. As a coach of the national team, he certainly knew that Su Yinsheng had to consider more than just Su Zhe. As the saying goes, one should do his job according to his position. He is not only a father, but also the head coach of the national team's sprint group. From this perspective, he certainly cannot give up Su Zhe, an important member of the relay team.
As a member of the relay team who was also present at the meeting, Chen Zhi spoke up amid the crowd's silence: "Master, Coach Lu, we have already discussed Xiaozhe's situation. In tomorrow's preliminaries, we will go all out in the first few batons to try to reduce Xiaozhe's burden in the last baton."
Su Yinsheng actually already knew about the discussions among his team members, but discussions were just discussions, and the results of these discussions might not be of much use.
However, apart from the method mentioned by Chen Zhi, there is currently no better way.
Su Yinsheng thought of this and threatened in a vicious tone, "Zhang Ye, after the Olympics, you guys go and get me all the files of the current 100-meter runners in the country and the video footage of their competitions. I'll go through them again when I get back. I don't believe I can't find some new talent!"
Since officially joining the national team, Su Yinsheng has been busy with relevant training and preparations for the Olympics, but this time the conflict and the possible impact it may have caused really stimulated Su Yinsheng, making him resolutely decide to discover a group of new seedlings in the country and train them well so that the relay team's bench depth will not remain so weak.
This meeting ultimately had to end like this. Neither Su Yinsheng nor Lu Fei could resolve the deadlock in tomorrow's game schedule.
Day 2, 10:15 AM, Tokyo New National Stadium
In the warm-up preparation venue, Zhao Zhixuan, Chen Zhi, Meng Hao and Su Zhe have already completed their respective warm-up preparations. The others patted Su Zhe on the shoulder and assured him that they would definitely go all out in today's game to ensure that Su Zhe could maintain his physical fitness as much as possible.
In China, on Weibo, when various media released the day's schedule, some discerning spectators saw Su Zhe's name on the list of both the 4*100m preliminaries and the 110m hurdles finals. After taking a closer look at the competition times for the two events, they immediately forwarded the message in surprise.
【#Tokyo Olympics#??? What's going on? I just noticed that Su Zhe is in both the men's 4*100m preliminaries and the 110m hurdles finals today??? These two competitions are next to each other??? How can we compare them? Shouldn't we give our best effort in the finals?】
The person who forwarded this Weibo post is a relatively well-known blogger. After he forwarded it, many bloggers who had not noticed it before expressed surprised questions, questioning why this situation had occurred.
Sports enthusiasts were also worried about this matter at the time, but when they saw that the spectators seemed to be making a big fuss about it, they hurried over and explained the reason to everyone.
[Although the track and field team performed well in the 100-meter event, there is still a lack of reserve talent, which is why this situation occurred... Su Zhe's choice was also for the honor of the national relay team, but we believe that China's sprint events are developing rapidly. In the future, the national team will be able to tap more relevant talents, and there will definitely be no more crises like the current one in future competitions.]
In today's Olympic cycle, although the whole nation has focused their attention on sports and the attention paid to various sports has reached an unprecedented level, this is also the time when the reputation of the events and individual athletes is most likely to be affected. Once any situation occurs and is not corrected in time, it is possible that the event will suffer a certain negative impact.
Fortunately, after some scientific knowledge from the track and field fans, the onlookers were finally appeased.
Everyone's attention shifted once again and refocused on the arena at this moment.
At 10:20 am, the first group of preliminaries of the Olympic men's 4*100m event will finally officially begin.
After clapping their hands, Su Zhe, Chen Zhi, Zhao Zhixuan, Meng Hao and several other teammates followed the staff's instructions, filed out of the entrance, and then each walked to the relay position belonging to their own baton.
In the first group of preliminaries, the teams in the same group as China are the United States, Canada, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cuba and Germany.
The strongest team among these is undoubtedly the United States team with top 100m runners such as Evenson and Gates. In addition, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago also have the ability to run under 38 seconds.
Surrounded by such sharpshooters, all the Chinese team has to do is to fight the tiger and win a spot in the finals!
In today's preliminaries, the Chinese team was placed in lane six, which is a pretty good lane. The fourth runner from the US team, Su Zhe's old rival, Gate, was measuring and pasting the marking line in lane five.
Apart from that, there were few players in other teams that Su Zhe was familiar with.
After all, the 4*100m event does not really test the speed of each athlete, but also the tacit understanding between athletes in passing the baton.
It is precisely because of this that many teams that do not perform well in the 100-meter individual event have achieved good results in this event.
After observing the athletes around him, Su Zhe stopped paying too much attention to his surroundings. He began to use his feet to measure the distance between the pre-running line and the starting mark line, which he had already figured out during previous training sessions. Then he tore off the tape wrapped around his arm and stuck the tape to the corresponding position.
When he was ready, he took a deep breath and relaxed himself.
Just like what Chen Zhi and the others said to him before - in today's game, all you have to do is believe in us.
Su Zhe smiled and thanked every one of his teammates at that time. He deeply understood that this was because of his teammates' concern and care for him. They were silently supporting him in their own way, allowing him to maintain his condition on the court as much as possible.
In that case, what does he have to worry about?
All he has to do is to cheer up, be well prepared, cooperate with his teammates, and run an excellent result together with everyone!
Just as Su Zhe turned around and looked at Zhao Zhixuan who was in the first position, the referee's calm reminder sounded on the radio.
This preliminaries will start soon!