Chapter 620 Let's Practice
With the end of the fan fishing competition, Baiyu can finally take a break, and 2023 is drawing to a close.
The new year is just around the corner, and he doesn't have much free time left. He'll be busy after the new year.
As for what I'm busy with, need I say more? Of course, it's training for the competition.
The upcoming year 2024 is the quadrennial Olympic year, and Bai Yu will be competing in several events.
In 2023, he played around for a whole year, without any systematic training or participation in any major competitions.
From the beginning to the end of the year, he would frequently appear on trending topics, and his negative attitude had already drawn the ire of some people.
If it weren't for the fact that Bai Yu was in a particular sport, no one else in China, let alone the Olympics, could even make it to the Asian Games finals.
If there were anyone who could replace Bai Yu, he would have been kicked out long ago.
But as 2023 draws to a close and 2024 is just around the corner, with the new Olympics just around the corner, he naturally can't stay idle any longer.
At least the relevant leaders who had been helping him withstand the pressure have sent him a message, requiring him to start training no later than after the Spring Festival, otherwise it will be really difficult for them to explain themselves.
Bai Yu looked at the message sent by the other party, shook his head and smiled helplessly, then had an idea in his mind, and immediately took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Hey, Lao Li, where are you right now? I have a competition I want to organize, could you help me contact people at Ocean University and the Haikou Sports Bureau?"
Bai Yu made a phone call to his head coach, Lao Li, who was also his coach during his school days. He was specially recruited by Lao Li to Shanghai University.
The other party treated him and Wang Hai very well. Bai Yu hadn't trained for so long this year, and the pressure was all borne by the other party and the direct supervisor in charge of long-distance running.
The main reason for having them contact people at Hainan University and the Haikou Sports Bureau this time was to give Coach Li some recognition so that when he retires, his benefits can be publicized online.
After all, if you really want to talk about it, Bai Yu is an outstanding graduate of Ocean University and a provincial team athlete in Hainan Province. If he makes the contact himself, do you think those two places would give him face?
"Another competition? This time you even need to contact the Sports Bureau. Xiaoyu, you're not organizing a sports competition this time, are you?"
Coach Li, on the other end of the phone, didn't immediately agree to what Bai Yu said. Instead, he asked a question in a doubtful tone.
After all, this is a sports competition. Since Bai Yu became famous, he has held four fishing competitions, but he has never held a sports competition.
Let alone formal competitions that require the involvement of the sports bureau, he has never organized any sports competitions even within the company.
So you can imagine how surprised Coach Li could be; he was extremely surprised.
"Yes, I plan to organize a long-distance running competition before the new year. The competition will only have two events, 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters. The preliminary rounds will be held in the morning and the finals will be held directly in the afternoon. The whole event will be held in one day."
“One day? Is that feasible? Normally, the preliminary and final rounds of this kind of competition should take at least two days. It’s not right to finish it in one day.”
"Not good? Old Li, you seem to doubt me. Don't you know my capabilities? Just do as I say, and there won't be any problems."
"It's not that I don't trust you, but I'm afraid the other contestants won't be able to handle it. If you're going to organize this competition, you can't be the only one participating, right? If you make it bigger, you might even attract a lot of foreigners."
I was worried that your schedule was too tight, with the 5,000 meters followed immediately by the 10,000 meters; most athletes couldn't handle that.
Coach Li explained over the phone that he was confident in Bai Yu's strength. Even though Bai Yu hadn't participated in any major competitions this year, he still believed that Bai Yu was the strongest.
However, he really felt that the race schedule proposed by Bai Yu was a bit too much. Who would leave only half an hour of rest time between the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races in a long-distance running event? This is ridiculous.
After all, for many athletes, as long as their ability allows, they will definitely register for both events.
That way, even if one project fails, you can try again on another project.
But Bai Yu went a bit too far this time. It's one thing that there's only a half-hour interval between the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races, but the most crucial thing is that the preliminary rounds were in the morning and the finals were in the afternoon.
If someone registers for both events and successfully advances to the finals, it means that the other person has to run 30,000 meters a day, and it's a high-intensity competition.
Thirty thousand meters is thirty kilometers, which is no small amount.
As for Bai Yu, he knows his own strength. It's impossible to say that this level of competition will have no impact on him, but the impact will not be significant.
His main goal was to divert the participants, encouraging them to register for only one event and not to keep trying to leave themselves more options.
In addition, in order to attract some experts this time, Bai Yuhao plans to invest more in the prize money. He doesn't believe that with such a generous reward, he can't attract some experts.
Finally, and most importantly, he also wanted to use this competition to showcase his strength and demonstrate that even though he hadn't participated in any competitions this year, his skills were still at their peak.
This is also a way to relieve some pressure on Coach Li and the leaders in charge of long-distance running. They've been supporting him for so long, it's time for him to show his skills.
After some communication, Bai Yu and Coach Li finalized the invitational tournament, which will be held in about ten days. Coach Li will need to communicate with Haikou University and Haikou Sports Bureau to determine the specifics.
Bai Yu invited Shanghai University to participate in the competition to promote his alma mater. If the weather was good on the day of the competition, it would be held on the outdoor sports field of Shanghai University. If the weather was bad, Shanghai University also has a gymnasium.
The prize money Bai Yu prepared for these two projects alone is enough to attract a lot of attention.
He prepared a prize of ten million for the two projects, including rewards for the first, second and third place winners. This prize money ratio already exceeds the amount of many international grand prix competitions.
After all, this is just a long-distance running event, not one of those popular sports with many sponsors, so this prize money is already quite substantial.
The reason Bai Yu offered such a large prize was not only to create a buzz and attract more experts, but also because he was confident in his own abilities.
Although there are three awards in sports competitions—first, second, and third place—even if someone wins both of these events, a portion of the prize money will still be lost.
However, for Bai Yu, even if the prize money from the two projects in Asia and Asia was taken by someone else, it would still be within his acceptable range.
After all, no matter what competition it is, the champion's reward is always the highest, and having one is enough.
The task of arranging the match schedule will be left to Coach Li. He only needs to wait until they finish their discussions and the announcement is released, and then he can help by forwarding it.
During this period, Bai Yu's life also began to become more regular.
Every morning after waking up, he would first take Li Xue and Bai Yue to the company, and then he would find a place in Sanya City to start training.
Although Bai Yu is confident in his abilities, confidence does not equate to arrogance; he still needs to maintain his daily training.
After all, training in sports is like practicing martial arts; if you don't practice for a day, it's as if you've wasted your time. So no matter what Bai Yu is doing, he always finds a way to train every day.
Even if things don't go well, he'll at least do some stretching to loosen up his body.
Coach Li acted quickly as well. On New Year's Day, an announcement was issued by Haikou Municipal Sports Bureau, Haikou University, and Baiyu Sports Bureau, stating that a track and field invitational tournament called the Hainan Provincial Year-End Invitational Tournament would be held on January 15th.
I just picked a name casually: Year-End Track and Field Invitational Tournament...
Although the name of this competition was chosen rather casually, the prize money for this competition is enormous.
The total prize money for this competition is as high as 50 million, and this track and field invitational tournament only has 10 events, which means that each event has an average prize of 5 million.
Of course, the ten million that Bai Yu contributed was also included, and the Municipal Sports Bureau and Ocean University each contributed a portion. Then, some sponsors were found, which brought the prize money to fifty million.
As for the competition events, in addition to the two long-distance running events, the remaining events include high jump, long jump, shot put, sprint, relay, hurdles, etc.
They pieced together ten projects and then built up this scale.
In the long-distance running events, the schedule was arranged according to Bai Yu's requirements, and his opponents were invited from outside the region.
Domestic athletes can also participate as long as they achieve a certain level of success, but Bai Yu's main target is international top athletes.
As for the other eight events, no invitations were extended to many top international competitors; at most, some Asian athletes were invited.
As I said before, the reason why foreigners are invited to the long-distance running event is because Bai Yu is confident that he can keep most of the prize money.
However, in other events, our people don't have much of an advantage, and with such a high prize money for this competition, they naturally don't want the foreigners to take it all.
As for training newcomers and giving them opportunities to compete against other top players?
This is completely unnecessary. To train new players, we can just find some players from Asia. There's really no need for the top players to come over.
After all, the gap is just too big. Sometimes, when the gap is too big, it doesn't serve as a training opportunity. Instead, it casts a shadow on the players' mentality.
For some of our projects, let's first break out of Asia and then compete against the top athletes from those countries.
Regarding this competition, Bai Yu added a comment while forwarding the post: "Then you guys practice your skills. I hope you can put some pressure on me."
He spoke with such arrogance, yet few people on the internet questioned Bai Yu's remarks.
Even though he hasn't competed at all this year, he is still ranked number one in the world, and he still holds the world records for the 3,000 meters, 5,000 meters, and 10,000 meters.
Based on his achievements, nothing he says is arrogant, or rather, he has the right to be arrogant, and that right is very solid!
This news was like a New Year's celebration for Bai Yu's sports fans, who eagerly anticipated it.
It's been a year. Do you know how Bai Yu and the others got through this year without participating in any competitions?
Now that Bai Yu is finally going to participate in the competition, how could they possibly miss it?
Especially since the competition venue this time is at Ocean University of China, and there is no entrance fee to watch the game, many fans immediately started checking their transportation options to Haikou.
If transportation is convenient and the timing doesn't conflict, then it's perfectly acceptable to go and watch a game live.
............
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com