Translator: dapotatursRelease Date: 09/04/2023
After this practice match revealed its true nature, the athletes, who had enjoyed a few days of easy training, suddenly realized that things weren't as simple as they seemed.
Exactly, where did they find such an angelic coach who could lead his athletes to improve their results continuously?
Li Junhao, a relay team member, had an unpleasant expression. "Coach, isn't this a bit too much? Is it necessary for this practice match to be so extreme?"
Upon hearing this question, Su Bai looked at Li Junhao with a smile. "Is it too much?"
Indeed, was it too much?
The other athletes on the scene also hesitated after hearing the question. Having strong opponents for a practice match was a common thing. It allowed athletes to experience competition against high-level opponents, aiding them in adapting to such scenarios early on, preventing them from panicking when they faced strong opponents during important competitions.
In fact, the national team often arranged for some promising athletes to participate in lower-level international competitions before major international events. This helped the athletes gain experience in international competitions.
Truly speaking, the opponents arranged by the national team for them might be opponents whose level they couldn't match at all. Getting a chance to compete against such opponents was actually a great opportunity.
But...
Except for Qiu Wen, the expressions on the faces of the remaining 400m athletes were far from natural.
Li Junhao, after being countered by Su Bai's questions, turned increasingly sullen. After thinking for a moment, he said with a frustrated tone, "Fine, let's compete then! Who would be worse than those guys?" With that, he turned and walked away.
The atmosphere on the scene was frozen for a moment. Su Bai, however, remained calm. He looked at Zhang Ziyi and the others present and said, "I believe you also want to achieve good results. Rest well tonight, don't exhaust yourselves too much. Tomorrow's practice match is scheduled for the afternoon. Good luck, everyone."
Having said that, Su Bai didn't linger on the training field. He turned and left, heading back to his office to review the training plans for these athletes once again and make some corresponding optimizations for possible situations.
The atmosphere among the athletes left on the field was heavy. Only Qiu Wen seemed fine.
Seeing the situation, Wang Ting temporarily suppressed his urge to comfort the athletes and hurried after Su Bai.
"Coach Su Bai!"
Chasing after Su Bai, Wang Ting called out, stopping him as he headed towards the coaching office.
"Coach Wang?"
"Coach Su Bai..." Wang Ting caught up with Su Bai and his expression seemed hesitant. He looked at Su Bai, paused for a moment, and then said, "Um, Li Junhao isn't that bad actually. He didn't mean anything by his backtalk just now. It's just that he's been spoiled and can't handle the discrepancy..."
Hearing Wang Ting's words, Su Bai naturally understood his meaning. He had no intention of making Wang Ting worry, so he straightforwardly said, "Coach Wang, don't worry, I understand what you mean." After a brief pause, Su Bai added, "In fact, among the current athletes, Li Junhao is one of the athletes I value the most."
"This..." Wang Ting widened his eyes slightly upon hearing Su Bai's words, as if he found it a bit hard to believe.
But what Su Bai said was the truth.
Over the past two days, he had reviewed a lot of information about the 400m athletes who joined the national team. He had also activated corresponding simulated athletes in the system space.
Whether it was the potential data observed from the system's view, or the test data derived after filtering out interference using simulated athlete data, Li Junhao's potential in the event wasn't below Zhang Ziyi's. In fact, in certain aspects, his potential even exceeded Zhang Ziyi's, who was relatively average overall.
Li Junhao's main problem was his poor psychological stability and excessive sensitivity. This directly caused him to become sulky and discouraged after losses, accumulating into a negative cycle. Eventually, it might lead him to give up entirely.
However, his outward personality seemed sharp and sensitive, making it difficult to notice his emotional lows when he encountered psychological problems, similar to Cui Luoheng's demeanor from before.
Li Junhao had excellent natural talent. During his participation in youth competitions, he faced less pressure than when he advanced to the adult category. In his first year after moving to the adult category, he achieved sub-47-second times in the 400m. Such results at his age garnered attention, and people expected him to quickly grow, taking over the position of the top 400m athlete from his teammate Zhang Ziyi and breaking the national record as soon as possible.
However, because of the high expectations placed on him, he felt tremendous pressure that surpassed his psychological capacity. After a loss in a certain competition, his teammates and Wang Ting didn't criticize him much, only advising him to do better next time. Yet, he felt that he could perceive disappointment in their eyes. From that point on, his performance began to fluctuate dramatically. By the outdoor season of the 18th year, he hadn't managed to recover his form.
Su Bai had also looked at Li Junhao's overall attributes and repeatedly reviewed his competition records, year-by-year training status curves, and data comparisons after cleaning and replacing the simulated athlete data. Finally, he was certain that the issue lay in Li Junhao's psychology.
In Su Bai's plan, this practice match was not just to wake up all the athletes and have them break out of their greenhouse. It was also designed to completely shatter Li Junhao's existing psychological threshold, elevate his mental threshold through a seemingly harsh method, and gradually enhance his psychological stability in future training.
Su Bai hadn't put it so plainly, but he looked at Wang Ting seriously and said, "I genuinely believe in Li Junhao's potential in this event, and I also believe his ability is not as he's currently shown. Coach Wang, rest assured, I won't develop any biases against him based on his performance today."
"That... that's good then." Wang Ting smiled wryly, shaking his head. He didn't say much more, instead following Su Bai towards the coaching office. He was afraid that he would soften and offer comforting words to the athletes, which might disrupt Su Bai's plan.
The next morning, in preparation for the afternoon practice match, the athletes didn't engage in complicated training. They simply did a light 30-minute jog to relax and conserved their energy for the match.
The five 400m athletes from the United States, who had arrived in B City just the day before, joined the national team members, including Zhang Ziyi, for the light jog training. Despite the time difference due to their recent arrival, they were well-versed in handling jet lag and adjusting their personal condition for competitions, given their frequent participation in various international races.
Once these American athletes arrived at the training field, the atmosphere became somewhat tense. It wouldn't be accurate to say that only the Chinese athletes were tense; rather, it was a one-sided tension. The American athletes, on the other hand, seemed relaxed and at ease, as if they were competing in their own territory.
Even though Zhang Ziyi, with his experience in international races, felt immense pressure at this moment, he, as the leader of China's 400m athletes, couldn't say much more at this point, despite his own pressures.
Among all the athletes, only Qiu Wen remained solely nervous about the afternoon practice match, without considering other factors such as pride.
In Qiu Wen's straightforward mind, he had only recently switched to the 400m event, and he fully acknowledged that there was a massive gap between domestic and international 400m standards.
In Qiu Wen's perspective, he accepted this fact quite openly. Therefore, at this moment, he was mainly nervous about competing against strong opponents.
The athletes around Qiu Wen more or less sensed his simple mindset, but most of them couldn't be as composed as Qiu Wen.
【These American athletes... they don't necessarily represent the level of the U.S. national team, right?】
【These athletes had world rankings of 50-100 last year. Their usual performances would probably be even worse, not to mention the jet lag. I doubt they'll perform very well.】
"Chuan-ge." Zhou Xu called out softly to Lin Chuang, feeling a bit nervous. "What do you think these American athletes will achieve in the afternoon match?"
"The 51st place has a time of 45.23 seconds, and the 100th place has a time of 45.65 seconds."
"...This."
Zhou Xu took in a sharp breath and seemed even more dejected.
The national record for the 400m in China, which hadn't been broken in over a decade, was 45.25 seconds. Yet, looking at the international annual rankings for the 400m from last year, even the top 50 times couldn't fit into this national record.
Although athletes generally knew that China's 400m performance wasn't strong, seeing these numbers in front of them gave them a feeling as if they were finally opening their eyes to the world from their own narrow viewpoints.
"45.65 seconds... Even if his condition is bad, it should still be within 47 seconds at least." Zhou Xu clenched his teeth. "Forget it, let's give it our all this afternoon. Damn, this Coach Su is really ruthless. There will be so many students from the sports school watching us. If our results are too poor, will we even have the face to show ourselves in the future?"
Having said this, Zhou Xu closed his mouth and didn't say anything more.
What else could they do?
With no athletes, they could only try their best.
At 2:40 in the afternoon, on the athletic training field of the national track and field team's training base, the tiered audience area was filled with hundreds of students from the B City Sports School who had come to observe. They held a mix of respect and anticipation for the national team. Even though the 400m race they were watching today was a weaker event, it didn't prevent them from supporting their national team athletes.
Not only these students, but the head coach of the national athletics team's sprinting group, Pei Jin'an, and the director of the Competition Department of the National Athletics Administration, Jiang Wentao, had also arrived at the scene. The two of them stood with Wang Ting and Su Bai.
Among the four, there were visible signs of nervousness on the faces of Pei Jin'an, Jiang Wentao, and Wang Ting. Even though they had known about Su Bai's plan for a while, when it came to this moment, they couldn't help but feel worried.
The official practice match was divided into two sessions. As planned, these American athletes would be paired with the seven participating Chinese national team members for two consecutive rounds of matches, with four of them running both rounds.
In the national team, Zhang Ziyi, Qiu Wen, and Guo Dun were assigned to the first match. The remaining four, including Lin Chuang, would participate in the second match.
Because of their nervousness, Zhang Ziyi, Guo Dun, and even Qiu Wen had to spend more time warming up to calm themselves down. While warming up, they envied Qiu Wen, the only one who seemed carefree about this match.
"It's about to start!"
With the scheduled time for the practice match arriving, even under enormous pressure, Zhang Ziyi and the others joined the American team athletes on the track, each preparing on their respective lanes as assigned by Su Bai.
It should be noted that Su Bai did indeed follow through with his words, leaving them with enough advantages. For example, Zhang Ziyi, Guo Dun, and Qiu Wen were placed in lanes 4, 5, and 6, respectively, while the American athletes were distributed across the other lanes on the sides.
However, this lane arrangement increased the pressure on Zhang Ziyi and the others.
The group of students from the B City Sports School in the audience didn't know the internal struggles on the track. Watching the athletes take the field, they cheered passionately, showing their support for the national team athletes.
Soon, the competition began in an atmosphere of excited spectators, nervous athletes, and relaxed opponents.
By the side of the track, an assistant coach from the national team was responsible for the starting commands. When he shouted, "On your marks, get set," the athletes on the track were ready. Then, with the sound of the starting gun, the race officially began!
On the track, during the starting phase, the reaction times of Qiu Wen, Zhang Ziyi, and Guo Dun were all good. In terms of the initial acceleration, even among these American athletes, there were some who weren't particularly skilled at curved start techniques. So, based solely on the starting phase, the speeds of Zhang Ziyi and Qiu Wen were somewhere in the middle.
However, after the initial curved acceleration phase, once they entered the second half of the first hundred meters, the American athletes' absolute speed advantage gradually became apparent.
During the first hundred meters, the American athletes' split times were generally around 10.90 seconds, with speed distribution ranging from about 10.70 to 11 seconds. In contrast, Zhang Ziyi, Guo Dun, and Qiu Wen's speeds were around 10.89, 11, and 10.80 seconds, respectively.
In reality, Qiu Wen's state today was a bit wild. The exhilaration from facing strong opponents had caused him to lose some of his usual self-control. Zhang Ziyi and Guo Dun's states were due to their greater pressure, forcing them to grit their teeth and run at the best speed within their control.
During the second hundred meters, due to the presence of a relatively long straight section, the American athletes' absolute speed advantage finally came into full effect!
In the second hundred meters, the average split time of these American athletes was around 10.50 seconds. Among Qiu Wen and the others, even Qiu Wen, who was running the most recklessly, had a speed of around 10.80 seconds.
The changes in speed among the athletes on the track were clearly visible from the perspective of those by the spectator stands.
If, during the first hundred meters, Pei Jin'an and the others had merely wrinkled brows, by the time they reached the second hundred meters, their brows had furrowed even tighter.
"The gap... is still too large."
Seeing their best national team athletes mercilessly outperformed by American athletes on the same track, no matter how much mental preparation Pei Jin'an and the others had done, it was difficult for them to accept.
By the side of the track, Lin Chuang and the others had already finished warming up and were watching nearby, waiting for their turn in the next round of the competition.
Their expressions were also quite grim at this moment. After all, among them, Zhang Ziyi and the others were currently the best in terms of performance. Yet, they were currently facing the cruel reality on the track.
"Does this kind of practice match... really have any meaning?!"
Li Junhao's expression was gloomy. Once again, he raised this question.
After some thought, Lin Chuang nodded. "Just trust the coach. Since he arranged this practice match for us, there must be a deeper meaning behind it..."
Lin Chuang also roughly understood Su Bai's intention, but he felt that Su Bai's approach was too cruel. By presenting this brutally realistic situation to them, how were they supposed to rebuild their confidence in competitions afterwards?
Regardless...
"Give it all you've got."
Lin Chuang let out a long sigh and prepared himself for an all-out battle.
The first match ended without any surprises. Among the national team members, Zhang Ziyi achieved sixth place with a time of 46.23 seconds. It was his second-best performance of the season.
Qiu Wen ranked seventh with a time of 46.36 seconds. He had charged too recklessly in the first two hundred meters, draining his energy excessively. As a result, his speed dropped significantly in the third hundred meters, leading to a time difference of almost 3 seconds between the two halves.
Guo Dun also ran one of his better performances of the season but ended up at the bottom of the list.
Among the five American athletes, the best time was 45.56 seconds, and the worst was 46.07 seconds. These American athletes truly adhered to Su Bai's requirement and left no room for face-saving for the Chinese opponents in this practice match. They swept the top five positions.
As the competition entered its final stages, with the American athletes crossing the finish line one after another, even the cheers of the sports school students in the audience had fallen silent. This awkward atmosphere seemed to permeate the entire competition venue.
The second round was no different from the first.
When Li Junhao gritted his teeth, enduring the tearing pain in his airways and crossed the finish line, several American athletes had already finished ahead of him.
After crossing the finish line, Li Junhao breathed heavily, his hands clenched into fists, and a sense of unwillingness filled his eyes.
He knew they couldn't compete with these foreign athletes. But in the context of this practice match, under the atmosphere of the competition, and despite having an advantage, they still couldn't outperform these foreign competitors...
At such a moment, a strong feeling of resentment surged within him.
Why?
Was it really the case that China's 400 meters were inferior to these foreigners?
Was it really... hopeless for China's 400 meters to beat these foreigners?
...
Many of the participants in today's competition, even the student spectators in the stands, Jiang Wentao, Pei Jin'an, Wang Ting, and others couldn't help but silently voice these doubts in their hearts.
And the domestic 400m sprinters, who had always been sheltered in their own cocoon, were forced to open their eyes to the harsh reality of the world in today's competition.
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