Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 09/02/2023
Full Chapter Title: Encouragement for Cui Luoheng & Astonishing Goals in the New Competition
"Cui Luoheng?!"
Upon seeing Cui Luoheng injured, Su Bai also took a few steps forward. However, Cui Luoheng's coach, assistant coach, and his 110-meter hurdles teammates were already by his side. To avoid crowding and accidentally worsening Cui Luoheng's condition, Su Bai refrained from getting closer.
"Where's the team doctor? Call the team doctor quickly!"
Cui Luoheng's coach, Zhou Wen, looked at the injured Cui Luoheng with a tense expression. As a coach, he had a certain understanding of athletes' injuries. After a brief examination, he realized that Cui Luoheng's injury wasn't too severe, which alleviated some of his worries.
However, regardless of the severity, they needed to call the team doctor to carefully examine and conduct scans to ensure there were no hidden issues.
"I've already called. The team doctor is on their way!"
The assistant, who was nearby, promptly dialed the team doctor's number after Cui Luoheng fell. The team's medical staff were on standby 24/7, especially during the training phase, in case of any emergencies.
Not long after the assistant's response, the medical team brought a stretcher. Leading them was Dr. Shao Zhixing, the team's most skilled doctor in treating sports injuries. After arriving, he instructed people to move away from Cui Luoheng, crouched down to examine his leg, asked a few questions about Cui Luoheng's own sensations, and then carefully guided those around to place Cui Luoheng onto the stretcher. They transported him to the team's examination room for further detailed assessments.
After Cui Luoheng had been taken away, Shao Zhixing stood up and turned to Zhou Wen, explaining, "There isn't a major issue. It seems to be a strain in the hamstring muscles. I'll take him for a more detailed examination."
He then asked, "Has Cui Luoheng been increasing his training load lately?"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Wen breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, "Yes, his recent performance in competitions hasn't been ideal. After the last competition, he voluntarily requested to increase his training load."
Understanding the situation, Shao Zhixing showed a knowing expression, "That explains it. Your 110-meter hurdles athletes, during their specialized training, already put significant strain on their hamstring muscles. I suspect his training load was substantial even before, and his hamstring muscles were already fatigued. Suddenly increasing the training load in such a state could easily result in a strain."
Athletes who made it to the provincial team had undergone years of training. Even with careful supervision from coaches and assistants, who didn't have some old injuries?
As soon as Shao Zhixing mentioned the hamstring strain, Zhou Wen understood. Fortunately, the injury wasn't severe. Cui Luoheng sustained the strain while swinging his leg over the hurdle. Due to the strain, his leading leg became unstable, causing it to hit the hurdle frame and scrape against it.
"Is the scrape injury serious? Hopefully, it hasn't affected the tendons..."
Shao Zhixing nodded, assuring Zhou Wen that he would conduct a comprehensive examination. After calming Zhou Wen's worries, he turned and headed back to the team's medical facility.
Once Shao Zhixing and his team had left, Zhou Wen sighed and had the assistant lift the hurdle frame that Cui Luoheng had knocked over. He signaled the remaining athletes to continue their individual training.
However, before dispersing, Zhou Wen added, "Warm up properly before training, and pay attention to safety during the training process."
Once everyone had resumed their training, Zhou Wen finally had a moment to turn and look at Su Bai standing nearby.
"Coach Xiao Bai," Zhou Wen smiled, "I apologize for this inconvenience. You had to witness this."
Su Bai shook his head, indicating it was fine. After all, athletes getting injured was a common occurrence in the team, even if not every day, and he had seen it before. However, in the case of Cui Luoheng's injury, Su Bai felt that he might have been able to prevent it, but he arrived too late, so he had some regrets.
Zhou Wen was aware that witnessing Cui Luoheng's injury could be frustrating. Playfully, he said, "Coach Xiao Bai, how come you're in the hurdles section? Is there a 400-meter runner in the hurdles team with potential? Are you here to recruit?"
"Uh, no." Su Bai thought for a moment and then said, "Actually, I came here today originally for Cui Luoheng."
He had initially planned to use the excuse of observing the training to address Cui Luoheng's poor state, but now that Cui Luoheng was already injured and taken away, that excuse didn't hold anymore. Su Bai decided to be straightforward.
Upon hearing Su Bai's words, Zhou Wen's expression became serious, and he looked at Su Bai, waiting for him to continue.
Su Bai thought for a moment, organized his thoughts, and then began, "As you know, Coach Zhou, apart from the 400 meters, I also oversee the dining options on the third floor. Over the past couple of months, Cui Luoheng, Qiu Wen, and Wang Shen have been coming to eat supper at my place. Through this, I've been able to gain some insight into their personal conditions."
Su Bai's words caught Zhou Wen's attention even more.
"After Cui Luoheng returned from the last invitational competition, I noticed he seemed down these past two days. I've also heard about his performance in training and competition, so he must be troubled by this issue," Su Bai paused, then continued, "I've observed that he's been carrying a heavier physical load than in the previous months. He looks fatigued during supper hours. I suspect he might have increased his training load. In my opinion, that might not be a good idea, so I came here today to inform you about this situation."
Hearing Su Bai's account, Zhou Wen sighed, "Coach Xiao Bai, you've also been through a lot. Thank you for making this effort." Zhou Wen reached up to massage his forehead with his right hand, trying to alleviate his headache.
"Actually, for someone like Ah Heng, his current situation doesn't necessarily call for an increased training load. After all, he doesn't have issues during regular training; it's during competitions that he struggles," Zhou Wen sighed again, "Improving competition performance isn't as simple as just increasing training load."
"However, this kid, Ah Heng, has a stubborn temperament. He told me that as long as he can perform better in training, he wouldn't mind slightly slower performance in competitions. He believes it'll make him stronger overall."
Hearing this, Su Bai furrowed his brow.
Zhou Wen sighed, "Originally, I thought that a few days of increased training load wouldn't cause any major issues. I planned to rework his training plan and bring it back to normal. I didn't expect this to happen just a few days later."
Zhou Wen's expression turned grim, "In any case, this time he got injured, and I bear a significant responsibility."
Due to Cui Luoheng's injury, Zhou Wen's mood was dampened. Su Bai's arrival was a bit too late; Cui Luoheng was already injured, and there wasn't much more to say. Having finished explaining, Zhou Wen returned to his team's training area.
During the dinner period, Qiu Wen and Wang Shen got wind of Cui Luoheng's injury. They were concerned about him and planned to visit him in his dormitory after dinner.
"Ah Heng is picky about his food, and he can't come to the cafeteria for dinner since he's injured. He probably hasn't eaten," Wang Shen remarked with a hint of frustration, recalling Cui Luoheng's finicky eating habits.
Hearing Wang Shen's words, Qiu Wen thought for a moment and suggested, "How about I ask Coach Xiao Bai if he can pack a meal for Ah Heng?"
Just as Qiu Wen finished speaking, a thermos-insulated container filled with food was placed on Qiu Wen and Wang Shen's table. Puzzled, Qiu Wen looked up and saw that Su Bai was the one holding it.
"Wow, is this for Ah Heng?" Qiu Wen asked in surprise.
Su Bai nodded to confirm.
Today, witnessing Cui Luoheng's injury in his presence made Su Bai regretful. If he had arrived at the hurdles section a bit earlier, Cui Luoheng might have been spared this injury. However, since the incident had already occurred, the focus should now be on helping Cui Luoheng recover as quickly as possible.
With the same understanding of Cui Luoheng's heightened taste sensitivity, Su Bai had decided to pack a meal and entrusted Qiu Wen and Wang Shen to deliver it to him.
"Wow, Xiao Bai, you truly are an angel!" Qiu Wen's eyes welled up with emotion as he looked at the container of food.
Su Bai waved his hand, paying no attention to Qiu Wen's words. Instead, he turned to Wang Shen and said, "Tell him that finding the root cause of the problem is the key to solving it. Blindly increasing training load won't improve his competition performance. I suspect he went to the hurdles section's training area to figure out something. Tell him not to rush. While the problem exists, it can be resolved."
"If he lets impatience lead to irreversible regrets, that would be the worst outcome."
After conveying these words, Su Bai waved to the two of them and returned to the kitchen.
After dinner, Wang Shen and Qiu Wen, armed with the container of food, visited Cui Luoheng's dormitory. They also passed on Su Bai's message to him.
Qiu Wen earnestly added, "Ah Heng, you know, Coach Xiao Bai is pretty amazing now. Since he says he believes in you, there must be no problem with your talent in the 110 meters hurdles!" He scratched his head and continued, "Actually, I mentioned your situation to Xiao Bai yesterday. Then when I got back to the dorm, he was checking your previous competition data. And today, didn't Xiao Bai even go to your hurdles training area? I guess he might have noticed something and that's why he went there!"
"In any case, like Xiao Bai said, Ah Heng, focus on recovering from your injury. Listen to your coach during training. While having poor competition performance is an issue, we can solve other problems over time!"
As he spoke, Qiu Wen seemed to be searching for an example and brought up Hu Li, Zhang Wei, and his own experiences, saying, "Look, weren't Hu Laoshi, Zhang Laoshi, and I all struggling before? But with Xiao Bai helping us, our performances have all seen breakthroughs! Your situation definitely won't be a problem!"
On his dormitory bed, Cui Luoheng listened to Qiu Wen's chatter. His gaze unconsciously drifted to the thermos-insulated container in his hands, and he vaguely recalled that after he collapsed today, he did see Su Bai at the hurdles training area.
Despite the many unreliable aspects in Qiu Wen's words, Su Bai did help him find the right direction for development and aided Hu Li, Zhang Wei, and himself in achieving breakthroughs in their personal states and performances.
After hearing the relayed messages from Qiu Wen and Wang Shen, Cui Luoheng pondered over them for a long time. Finally, he silently replied with a simple "okay."
Over the next two weeks, Cui Luoheng was instructed to rest and gradually began engaging in light upper body and trunk training once he started to recover. He received regular treatments from the team doctor.
His hamstring injury wasn't too severe, and after two weeks, he slowly began to reintroduce normal training.
During these two weeks, Su Bai didn't remain idle. He spent time in the training area observing the simulated athlete attributes of 'Aluo1' and borrowed some of Cui Luoheng's training materials from the hurdles team. He was able to deduce some insights and formulated speculations about Cui Luoheng's issues.
However, he didn't have the time to confirm these speculations yet. After about two weeks of the latter half of training, the verification of Hu Li and Zhang Wei's improved performances was about to happen.
On June 24th, the final leg of the national track and field Grand Prix took place, and Su Bai had already discussed with Hu Li and Zhang Wei about aiming to achieve a time of 47.60 seconds in this event to evaluate the effectiveness of the month's training.
On June 23rd, Su Bai once again led Qiu Wen, Hu Li, and Zhang Wei to participate in the event held in H city for the final leg of the Grand Prix. This time, all three of them would be competing.
Since the country's top 400m athlete, Zhang Ziyi, didn't participate in this event, Su Bai set the goal for Qiu Wen to strive for his first championship title in the 400m event since switching to it. As for Hu Li and Zhang Wei, their aim was to run under 47.60 seconds to secure a spot in the finals of the track and field Grand Prix.
After learning about the targets Su Bai had set for his three athletes, He Yishen heard the words but couldn't help but feel amazed. Even though he had immense trust in Su Bai's abilities, he couldn't help but feel a bit doubtful – could Su Bai really be serious about this? Even with his highly-regarded abilities, it was difficult to imagine that all three of his athletes could make it to the finals of an event as competitive as the Grand Prix.
The expressions of doubt didn't go unnoticed by Su Bai, and he calmly said, "Do you still remember the performance goals I set for you a month ago?"
Hu Li and Zhang Wei exchanged glances and replied, "After one month of training, run the 400m in under 47.60 seconds."
Su Bai nodded and then turned to Qiu Wen, asking, "In the last race you participated in, what were the finishing times of the last two competitors in the finals?"
Qiu Wen hesitated, not expecting the question to be directed at him. After a quick recollection, he answered, "It was 47.92 and 47.96."
Hearing Qiu Wen's response, Su Bai nodded and turned to Hu Li and Zhang Wei, his tone slightly puzzled. "Half a month ago, your interim test results were 47.64 and 47.67, respectively. Are you telling me that after half a month of training, your performances have declined?"
...
...
!!!
Su Bai's words didn't carry a heavy tone, but upon hearing them, all three of them immediately sat up straight. Feeling a tingling sensation on their scalps, they quickly shook their heads.
Seeing them shake their heads, Su Bai then asked, "So, can you secure a spot in the finals tomorrow?"
This time, Hu Li and Zhang Wei vigorously nodded. "Yes, we can. No problem, absolutely!"
Beside them, Qiu Wen, also trembling, watched as Su Bai's gaze turned towards him. "Qiu Wen."
...
Qiu Wen shivered all over, struggling for three minutes but ultimately didn't dare to ask, "What if I don't have confidence?" This was a pot he couldn't pass on to anyone else and he was determined to bear it, even if it meant crying.
Wasn't it just the championship?
...Tomorrow, he would give it his all!
The next day, at the warm-up area of the H city track and field Grand Prix.
At 10:15 AM, athletes from all over the country were warming up and preparing for the 400m race. Among them, a few of Zhang Wei's and Hu Li's old friends, who had heard that they changed coaches, planned to chat with them about their decision to switch coaches. But when they approached them, intending to start a conversation, they were met with serious, focused athletes who rejected any interaction.
Their old friends were bewildered.
"Are you pushing yourselves so hard? Did your coach give you a life-or-death order to perform? You've only been under his guidance for a month, right? Can he really expect you to deliver results in such a short time? Isn't that a bit excessive?"
Hearing this, Zhang Wei and Hu Li paused their movements one after another, earnestly responding, "The coach set the goal for us, but it's also our own desire to compete."
Seeing how Zhang Wei and Hu Li were defending their coach, their old friends decided not to press further. However, one of them curiously asked, "What's the target your coach set for you?"
"47.60 seconds."
...
...
!!!
Beside the warm-up area for the 400m training, because this event marked the last leg of this year's Grand Prix, several prominent media outlets from H province had come to cover the event. Among them was a reporter from a local TV station who, although not a professional sports journalist, had done his homework before coming to the event. He knew that running the 400m under 47.60 seconds was no small feat for Chinese athletes. However, he didn't think too deeply about it and just felt that the coaches of these two athletes were quite demanding. He recorded the scene and even thought of a news headline: "High Standards and Stringent Requirements: 400m Athletes Prepare Vigorously for H City Track and Field Grand Prix!"
The reporter didn't know the specifics, but the athletes nearby were well aware of the situations of Zhang Wei and Hu Li. Hearing about their coach's demands, they widened their eyes, showing disbelief.
Yet, seeing the presence of the reporter, Zhang Wei and Hu Li looked resolute, so the other athletes didn't dare to ask further questions. They exchanged glances and remained silent. Afterwards, they huddled together in a corner to gossip about what kind of coach Zhang Wei and Hu Li had encountered, and how could he set such an outrageous goal for them.
Zhang Wei and Hu Li didn't mind what their old friends thought. Their goal right now was to meet the targets set by Su Bai.
For their respective heats, Zhang Wei was in the 6th heat, Hu Li was in the 9th heat, and Qiu Wen was in the 3rd heat.
Among the spectators, the attendance for this leg of the Grand Prix was high. Since both Fang Yu and Wu Yi had found time to participate in a domestic Grand Prix event, most of the spectators who had come to watch the sprints were there to see them.
Among them were also some members of the Athletics Kingdom forum, who, due to missing the live broadcast of Qiu Wen's debut, had taken this opportunity to come see the rising star of the domestic 400m event.
In the previous leg of the Grand Prix, Qiu Wen had also run under 47.50 seconds, showing an improvement even over his debut time of 47.47 seconds. This consistent, steady progress had garnered a lot of expectations for him.
In today's heats, Qiu Wen didn't disappoint. In the 3rd heat, he maintained a comfortable lead throughout and, spurred on by the cheers of the audience, finished with a time of 47.49 seconds. He comfortably secured the first place in his heat and temporarily ranked first in the overall heats.
Spectators watching the sprints couldn't help but feel delighted by Qiu Wen's performance. "Qiu Wen is doing great! He's been consistent in the last three Grand Prix events, and he even eased off a bit at the end of the heats this time, yet he still managed a time of 47.49 seconds. He might even beat his personal best again this time!"
Due to Qiu Wen's consecutive strong performances, he had garnered quite a few supporters among the Chinese track and field enthusiasts.
"Qiu Wen is doing well in this event. He's been setting new personal records every leg of the Grand Prix. That coach of his is indeed impressive. At first, we misunderstood and thought that coach was just well-connected, but that was a mistake."
"But, speaking of which, the two other 400m athletes from their team, who originally competed in this event, have also switched to this coach for about a month now, right? It seems like they're also participating today. I wonder how their performances will be."
"Just a month's time, at most it's just for adjusting their condition, right? I know about those two athletes as well. One is named Zhang Wei, and the other is Hu Li. They're older athletes in the 400m event, and their previous personal best times weren't high. For such veteran athletes, they might not perform as well as newcomers like Qiu Wen in the 400m event. If we really want to see their performance, we probably need to wait until next year, at least?"
As these spectators chatted, they kept their eyes on the heats on the track, occasionally shouting words of encouragement to the impressive athletes.
Soon, it was time for the heats of the 6th group, and Zhang Wei stepped onto the track. The audience in the stands didn't notice that this Zhang Wei was one of the athletes they had discussed earlier.
Just like in the previous phase tests, Zhang Wei didn't gain a significant advantage during the starting phase. However, by maintaining his pace and steadily progressing, he managed to move from an initially inconspicuous position to the front by the third hundred meters of the race.
The athlete trailing not far behind Zhang Wei was one of his old friends. Until now, he had consistently outperformed Zhang Wei, but today was different. He was surprisingly overtaken by Zhang Wei from around the 200-meter mark and remained suppressed by him throughout the race.
As they crossed the finish line, Zhang Wei's old friend gasped for breath, watching Zhang Wei dash through as the first in the group during the heats. He recalled the target that Zhang Wei and Hu Li had mentioned before warming up for the race, and three big words flashed through his mind — "No way?!"
In the end, Hu Li, in the 9th group of the heats, managed to maintain his explosive start advantage and leverage the improvements he had made over the past two weeks in his weaker areas. Although other runners were closing in on him towards the end, he held onto his lead and secured the first place in the group's heats.
Many people didn't realize anything significant until the list of qualifiers for the 400m sprint finals was announced. It was only then that athletes and onlookers in the stadium were astonished to discover that among the eight finalists, three were from the S Province Athletics Team?!
"Oh my god, three athletes from the S Province Athletics Team are competing, and all three are in the finals?!"
When this realization dawned on everyone, this astonishing news spread like wildfire among all athletics enthusiasts!
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