When the referee's warning voice was broadcast throughout the venue, Zhao Zhixuan was squatting on his own starting blocks at the starting corner of the first run, holding the baton with a calm expression.

He looked very calm, but Zhao Zhixuan knew that he could hear his own heartbeat, pounding violently.

This is a battle in which they carry the glory of the Chinese team on their shoulders, and it is also a battle in which they need to fight with all their might for their teammates.

Amid the intense heartbeat, Zhao Zhixuan calmly heard the referee's voice change.

"Everyone, take your positions."

"Be prepared."

"Bang!"

After the starting gun sounded, Zhao Zhixuan did not hesitate at all, stepped on the starting block with his right foot, and after exploding, he quickly pushed off the starting block and sent himself onto the track!

When starting on a curve, he should have paid more attention to restraining his starting explosive power and should not let his explosive power be too strong to avoid losing control of his body. However, today, he used more than 90% of his usual explosive power at the start, which is almost close to the power he uses when starting on a straight track.

The outburst of this power made him feel for a moment that he was on the verge of losing control, but it was only the edge!

He quickly controlled the centrifugal force when starting on a curve, and paced himself on the track, gradually accelerating from the start to speeding up, thus increasing his speed on the track!

As an athlete who also learned from Su Yinsheng, although Zhao Zhixuan has not yet gained a loud enough reputation internationally, he is actually the third best athlete in the 100m in China.

He is extremely talented in the 100-meter event, and his ability in cornering is far beyond the imagination of many people.

His body was slightly tilted inwards, and on the curve, he stepped steadily in the area close to the inside of the curve, at the position where the track had the largest curvature. The centrifugal force was pulling him, but even so, it did not affect his performance on the field at this moment!

In the commentary room of the sports channel, Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan were watching the real-time footage of the first baton starts of all the teams on the track.

Zhao Zhixuan's performance in the first start can be said to be enough to make people's eyes shine.

"Zhao Zhixuan's start was good!" Zhang Jing said, "His reaction was quick and his self-control ability on the curve was excellent. From the perspective of curve start technique alone, he should be the best in the team, which is also an important reason why he was arranged as the first runner of the entire relay team."

"From the start of the US team, the Canadian team and the Trinidad and Tobago team, we can see that the strong teams have all made good starts. This is also a huge pressure and challenge for our team!"

Just as Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan said, in the first leg of the preliminary round of this relay race, the three strongest teams in the first group of preliminary rounds all performed very well in the starting stage.

On Zhao Zhixuan's left side, the American team's first runner Evanson, who was originally behind him, had gradually caught up with Zhao Zhixuan in the process of turning. This domineering speed performance, even though Zhao Zhixuan was strong, was still unable to withstand the absolute difference in speed when facing the world's number one 100-meter runner who was also good at turning.

It can be said that every athlete on the American team is strong, and their average 100-meter result is less than 10 seconds. Among the reserve players, the one with the worst performance had a sb of 10.01 in the 2020 season.

This is a formidable team composed of strong players, and the reason why they cannot steadily occupy the championship in the men's 4*100m relay is the lack of coordination among the American players. Looking back on the past, the American team has made mistakes many times due to lack of tacit coordination, and ultimately lost the relay throne.

When they work well together, they also ran 37.12 seconds last year, a result that is enough to rank among the top three in relay history.

On the track today, the performance of the US team's first runner, Evenson, was impeccable. He perfectly demonstrated his strength as the current world No. 1 in the 100 meters. After the start, he surpassed three teams in the outer lane all the way in the inner lane. When approaching the second runner's baton pass, Evenson had almost jumped into the first position!

Evenson's overtaking brought a little pressure to Zhao Zhixuan, but he had prepared for this situation before the game. After the list of preliminaries came out, they knew that they had no room to relax their vigilance. Only by fighting hard could they win the chance to enter the finals and reduce the pressure on Su Zhe, who was the last runner in the preliminaries.

After turning the corner, Zhao Zhixuan was gradually approaching the baton-passing point for the second runner. The person waiting for Zhao Zhixuan to pass the baton on the second runner's preliminary running line was Chen Zhi.

Unlike the American team, which has strong batters per capita, the core of the Chinese team is the second batter Chen Zhi and the fourth batter Su Zhe. The positioning of this dual core is to stabilize the team's performance in the second baton, and it is best to be able to create a certain distance from other teams, which will be conducive to the strong batter's sprint in the last baton.

But today, Chen Zhi, the core of the second leg, has to bear greater pressure. He must try his best to improve the team's speed and ranking in the second straight. At this stage, the Chinese team must establish a certain speed advantage, otherwise after the third bend, the sprint of the fourth leg Su Zhe will consume too much physical energy.

Before Zhao Zhixuan appeared, Chen Zhi had already prepared to start at the preliminary running line. When Chen Zhi leaned over and looked behind him and saw that Zhao Zhixuan had reached the starting mark, he pushed off the ground without hesitation and started running, accelerating all the way in the preliminary running area, gradually increasing his speed to the maximum.

Zhao Zhixuan had already arrived behind Chen Zhi at this time, and the two were in the baton passing area. When Chen Zhi reached his fastest speed, he had also reached the limit of baton passing position.

"Senior Brother!"

"catch!"

When Chen Zhi heard Zhao Zhixuan's order to hand over, he quickly reached back, and Zhao Zhixuan accurately handed the baton to Chen Zhi while running. After the command of "take", Chen Zhi decisively grasped the baton in his hand, and then without any unnecessary movements, he started to rush forward at the fastest speed!

Evenson of the American team had already reached the baton passing area, but there were some errors in the baton passing between him and the second runner - the second runner in their team started too slowly, which forced Evenson to slow down and pass the baton to his hands in accordance with the rhythm of his teammates.

Although there were some twists and turns in the middle, the US team still maintained its position.

The first and second runners of the Canadian team passed the baton a little earlier than the Chinese team. The players of the Canadian team also passed the baton very well. As of this point, the Canadian team is second in this group of preliminaries, followed closely by the Chinese team.

The Trinidad and Tobago team is in the third lane. They have not yet overtaken from the inside lane, but their passing of the baton is also very smooth.

At this time in the competition, the ranking on the track was temporarily maintained as follows: the United States team first, the Canadian team second, the Chinese team third, and the Trinidad and Tobago team fourth.

After taking over the baton, Chen Zhi further improved his speed. His personal strength and condition are similar to those of the second runner of the US team, and are much stronger than the second runners of the Canadian team and the Trinidad and Tobago team.

On this short 100-meter straight track, Chen Zhi took off at a gradually increasing pace, trying to overtake the second runners of the Canadian and American teams in front of him.

"The baton pass between Zhao Zhixuan and Chen Zhi was very smooth! Great! The 100-meter straight is indeed Chen Zhi's home turf. He is catching up with the Canadian and American athletes ahead..."

"Well done! Chen Zhi has already surpassed the second runner of the Canadian team and is still charging towards the second runner of the American team!"

In the live broadcast room, Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan were cheering for Chen Zhi's performance at this moment. His speed on the straight was astonishing. It was in this way that he used his absolute strength to pull the Chinese team up from its current position to second place!

Unfortunately, the 100-meter straight was still too short. Chen Zhi surpassed the Canadian athlete in front of him and widened the gap between him and the other teams behind him. However, he was still two steps away from the second runner of the American team.

Soon, he was approaching the second and third baton passing area between him and Meng Hao. Meng Hao in front of him was also already serious and focused. When he confirmed that Chen Zhi had reached the starting mark, he immediately started the preliminary run and began to increase his speed.

Meng Hao, who had made a baton passing error in last year's relay race, never forgot to improve the tacit understanding between himself and his teammates during the past six months of training. Especially after Chen Zhi returned, whenever he had any free time, he tried his best to contact Chen Zhi and Su Zhe and conducted as many baton passing training as possible between them.

This kind of tacit understanding in passing the baton can only be improved step by step through as much training as possible.

Fortunately, he did it.

At this moment, in the baton passing area, he accurately followed the instructions given by Chen Zhi behind him, steadily grabbed the baton passed from Chen Zhi, then took a step forward and began to run as hard as he could on this bend.

On the curve, Meng Hao's body center of gravity leaned slightly inward, but he still did a good job of maintaining his speed. On the curve, the arc and speed he ran were close to perfect. Even under the influence of centrifugal force, he still ran at his best!

Don't let your guard down!

Don't let your team be affected by your own lagging speed!

Meng Hao's eyes were fixed on the third runner of the American team in front of him. He used the speed of the American player in front of him as an anchor, kept to his rhythm, and forced himself to increase his speed as much as possible.

This is a somewhat dangerous approach, but once successful, driven by the speed and rhythm of the athletes in front, it can indeed have a certain effect on the performance of the athletes behind.

Meng Hao's attempt was obviously successful. On this bend, he was close to the third runner of the American team in front of him. Although it was difficult for him to reach the level of Chen Zhi in terms of speed, he did not lose the speed advantage created by Chen Zhi. The third runner of the Canadian team behind him just barely made up some distance, and the third runner of the Trinidad and Tobago team was also still lagging behind, and there was still a certain gap between them and the Chinese team!

"Second place!!! The Chinese team is still in second place!!"

In the commentary room, Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan were both a little excited. The current ranking of the Chinese team was something they had never expected. They originally thought that as long as the Chinese team could rank in the top two among the two remaining teams and advance, it would be good enough. However, the performance of the Chinese relay team at this time far exceeded their expectations!

At this moment in China, in front of thousands of live broadcast screens, everyone was staring nervously at the red figure running on the track. The slightly excited voices of Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan in the live broadcast room and the fierce cheering atmosphere on the scene made people's hearts hang in suspense, fearing that any accident would happen in the next moment!

Fortunately, by the time Meng Hao reached the third baton passing area, the Canadian team and the Trinidad and Tobago team behind him had only caught up a little bit and had not yet truly surpassed Meng Hao's position.

Su Zhe was now very calm. He temporarily ignored the cheers from the people around him. He squatted down, got into a ready position, and looked behind him.

The first runner of the American team has arrived first, followed closely by Meng Hao of the Chinese team!

The moment Meng Hao reached the preliminary running line, Su Zhe also started his pace without hesitation. When he accelerated in the preliminary running area, Meng Hao had already arrived behind him. After reaching the relay area, the speed of the two was almost the same at this moment.

"Su Zhe."

"catch!"

It was still this simple instruction. The moment he stretched out his hand accurately and grasped the baton, Su Zhe had already made up his mind.

The successful passing of the baton basically means victory at this point!

He was confident that he would never give up the victory that was almost in his hands in the remaining 100 meters of the runway!

Just as Su Zhe thought, when Meng Hao and he successfully completed the baton pass, Zhang Jing shouted loudly in the live broadcast room of the sports channel!

"Good! The baton has been handed over to Su Zhe! Their baton passing was very smooth!"

"The Chinese team's athletes have done a great job in passing the baton. Now, on the last 100-meter straight, we welcome our fourth runner - the bronze medalist of the 100-meter race at this Olympics, Su Zhe!!!"

At the same time, Zhang Jing was not the only one who roared after seeing this scene.

In the audience seats, in the Chinese players' area, Zheng Wensheng and others also cheered loudly - on this final straight, even Gates, who was leading at the front at this time, could not pose any threat to Su Zhe!

This is everyone's trust in Su Zhe, and Su Zhe will never let down everyone's trust.

He walked forward, his pace having been increased to the highest level. He swung his arms quickly, and his strong and agile steps appeared powerful and fast.

Behind Su Zhe were the fourth runners from Canada and Trinidad and Tobago. At this time, all eight teams had reached the straight area, but the one who was truly leading in the front was still Gates from the American team, followed by Su Zhe from the Chinese team.

The two fourth batsmen of Canada and Trinidad and Tobago never gave up chasing the front, but every step of Su Zhe was at a point that they could not surpass.

From the perspective of personal strength alone, Su Zhe's results were enough to completely crush them who had not yet broken the 10-second mark. Even though Su Zhe did not really run at the fastest speed at this time, he was still able to steadily suppress them behind.

This speed pressure at the last baton was a little too much for them to bear.

At this time, Su Zhe did not completely let go of his speed. The advantage created for him by his teammates allowed him to maintain this victory gap without pursuing extreme speed.

Gate in front also slowed down in the final sprint and did not increase his speed to the maximum.

The most intense competition at this time was between Canada, which was in third place, and Trinidad and Tobago, which was in fourth place. The difference between third and fourth place was the difference between being able to advance directly to the finals.

When Suzhe successfully crossed the finish line after Gates, everyone in the Chinese players' booth breathed a sigh of relief.

In the commentary room of the sports channel, Zhang Jing and Wang Miaochuan were also very excited - the second place in the preliminaries advanced directly, which was the best result the Chinese team had achieved in the world relay events in recent years!

On the field, after Su Zhe crossed the finish line, several teammates from the relay team came to Su Zhe and hugged him one by one with a smile.

"Thank you."

Su Zhe said to Chen Zhi and others with a smile.

In today's game, he could feel how hard his teammates in front of him were running in order to save him as much energy as possible.

"Okay, thanks." The other three smiled and shook their heads.

This relay preliminary race was the first official race that this relay team ran after being officially formed, and the result of this race was enough to make them feel proud.

"Tsk, our strength is still pretty good!" Meng Hao felt a little emotional at this moment. For strong relay teams like Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, according to their previous results, they could only wait for these teams to make mistakes themselves. Today, although they did make some mistakes, the Chinese team's victory in this preliminary round was more based on their own strength.

Zhang Jing was also talking about this in the commentary room of the sports channel.

"The reorganized Chinese relay team has made a qualitative leap in overall strength. Led by the second runner Chen Zhi, the Chinese team has been able to establish a certain speed advantage in the first half. Once this speed advantage is maintained in the second half, there will be sufficient guarantee for the performance in the sprint of the last runner Su Zhe!"

"Not bad." Wang Miaochuan nodded and said, "Last year, many people were looking forward to how our relay team would perform after the two core members joined forces. Now it seems that the power of the two core members has begun to show. This outstanding performance is enough to impress everyone!"

As the two were talking, the referee team had already pushed out the final results of the first group of the relay team preliminaries on the big screen.

The moment they saw the results, everyone had a relieved smile on their faces.

"Tokyo Olympic Men's 4*100m Preliminary First Group: First Place, United States (37.78), Second Place, China (37.85), NR (refreshed national record), Third Place, Canada (37.91), Season SB, Fourth Place, Trinidad and Tobago (38.08)..."

In this competition, the top three teams in the preliminaries all ran under 37 seconds, and the Chinese team even broke the national record for the men's 4*100m event in one fell swoop. Such results excited everyone.

Posts about the Chinese relay team breaking the national record began to appear on the Internet. On the field, Su Zhe, after high-fiving his teammates to celebrate, turned around and followed the staff to the preparation and waiting area of ​​the 110-meter hurdle.

After a short wait and rest, he will face the final of the 110m hurdles event later.

Leaning on a bench in the waiting area, Su Zhe closed his eyes and used the less than 20 minutes from the second preliminary round of the relay race to the start of the relay race to force himself into a deep sleep and barely recover some of his strength.

In the relay race just now, although he did not run at full speed, his leg muscles would inevitably enter an anaerobic state after starting at the 100-meter speed. Even if he thought he did not run at full speed, the loss of physical strength was inevitable under this fast running in an anaerobic state.

In order to be in the best possible condition for the upcoming 110-meter hurdles final, he cannot miss any possible way to restore his physical fitness.

About ten minutes later, Su Zhe woke up after being reminded by the staff - it was only a short 10 minutes of deep sleep mode, which could only restore less than 10% of his physical strength at most.

But compared to the state before the rest, there has been enough improvement.

When Su Zhe opened his eyes, Holness was watching him from the side of the aisle. Only after he opened his eyes did he grin at him. Standing behind Holness was Zhou Tianjue, who was frowning and looked a little worried.

"You're finally awake!" Holness looked relieved, as if he had been squatting beside him for a while.

Looking at Holness's expression, Su Zhe laughed.

Also a member of the 4*100m relay team, Holness does not need to expend energy participating in the preliminaries because the Jamaican team has strong reserve players. For the Jamaican team, if Holness can win the gold medal in the 110m hurdles final, this will be the most valuable thing for them.

Su Zhe is a little envious of the Jamaican team's confidence in the relay race, but this is the difference in advantages of different countries in different events. Although the Chinese track and field team does not have such accumulation now, Su Zhe also believes that with the continuous development of time, the Chinese track and field team will definitely be able to reserve a strong enough talent pool.

Holness didn't know what Su Zhe was thinking. He just patted Su Zhe on the shoulder with a smile, indicating that he could go on the court together. Zhou Tianjue didn't say much during the whole process, but glanced at Su Zhe from time to time, obviously worried about his current condition.