Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 09/04/2023
The man sitting next to Su Bai was busy setting up his live camera. He seemed to notice the gaze next to him and turned his head to give Su Bai a big smile.
"Hey, buddy, sorry about this. I'm doing a live broadcast for the guys on the forum. Hope you understand!"
As the man continued to adjust the equipment in front of him, he chatted with Su Bai, "Oh, buddy, let me tell you, even though this event is being broadcast on the sports channel, some guys on the forum prefer our live shout-out broadcasts from the scene. Back when Qiu Wen just switched to the 400 meters, and during a few matches of the S Province Athletics Team, there were no live broadcasts on the sports channel. It was thanks to us forum buddies doing live broadcasts from the scene that they could catch a glimpse of the game action."
"Can't forget this fine tradition... Oh well, by the way, buddy, have we met before? Why do you look a bit familiar?"
The man adjusting the live camera had been talking nonstop without Su Bai getting a word in. He happily rambled on, only to realize at the end that Su Bai seemed somewhat familiar.
Su Bai smiled and replied, "Probably not. I haven't been to Q City before."
"Huh?" The big man was still adjusting his equipment and paused for a few seconds after hearing this. "Huh? No, I feel like I've seen you before..."
Before the big guy could say anything more, cheers suddenly erupted from the scene. The preliminary round of the women's 400 meters was about to start.
"Oh no! Why isn't the network working properly here?"
The cheers from the on-site athletes' entrance and the entrance of the women's 400-meter team made the big man nervous all of a sudden. He didn't have time to figure out why he felt familiar with Su Bai. In a hurry, he fiddled with the live camera in his hand.
Su Bai found this scene quite amusing as he watched. Finally, he saw the big man successfully set up the live camera and network just before the start of the race. He even started the live broadcast.
"Hey, buddies! Big Bear is back! Today, Big Bear will bring you all to watch the morning and evening sessions of the National Athletics Championships! Sorry I'm a bit late today due to something, but the women's 400 meters just started, and the race hasn't begun yet, so don't worry!"
Su Bai, who was next to him, was amused. It seemed that this big guy was quite accustomed to live broadcasting. His opening lines were very smooth, and he even introduced the athletes on the field with the same professionalism as an official commentator.
"For the women's 400 meters preliminaries this morning, we have two groups. Each group has eight female athletes. The top two from each group will directly advance, and the remaining athletes will be selected from the top four in the rankings as alternates. Currently, what you all are seeing at the scene are the eight athletes from the first group of preliminaries!"
As Su Bai listened to Big Bear's commentary, he found it rather endearing. The surrounding spectators seemed used to it too, as they were all good-humored and didn't seem to have any objections. A viewer sitting on the other side of Big Bear even glanced at the live broadcast on his screen.
"Hey, Big Bear, your live stream... The camera on your phone isn't capturing the action very clearly. Can the folks in the live stream room see the game properly?"
Just as someone chimed in during the live broadcast, Big Bear, the host, seemed completely unbothered by it. "Hey, buddy, let me tell you, what's there to worry about? If the view isn't clear here, switch to the sports channel. Besides, our live broadcast is more about capturing the atmosphere. If you feel unsatisfied here, you can always watch the replay on the sports channel, right?"
"You're right, that makes sense!" The viewer next to him quickly realized the logic and then turned his attention to the live broadcast on Big Bear's screen, finding it quite entertaining.
On the race track, the female 400-meter athletes were now ready, standing behind the starting blocks, and the race was about to begin.
Big Bear next to Su Bai immediately became nervous. "Oh no, it's starting! Come on, girls!!"
Su Bai was also prepared at this point.
Now that he was the head coach of the national 400-meter team, he couldn't focus solely on the men's team. The women's team was equally important for him to observe.
Moreover, even though the training plan adjustments were made just two weeks ago, today's competition would somewhat indicate whether these adjustments were starting to show results.
With these thoughts in mind, Su Bai glanced down at the notebook in his hand and marked the names of Chen Yadan and Lin Yao with special emphasis. Chen Yadan was undoubtedly a focus of observation, while Lin Yao was one of the main players in the national women's 4x400 meters relay. Her current personal best was 53.75 seconds, making her a top-level athlete.
On the track, Chen Yadan and Lin Yao were focused and attentive. Ever since Su Bai became the head coach of the national 400-meter team two weeks ago, these girls from the women's team had experienced a surge of excitement before he officially met with them.
After Su Bai conducted physical tests for them, he firmly told them, "You all have the potential to break through."
This statement, coming from Su Bai, carried so much conviction. When Su Bai answered Chen Yadan's question and left, she discreetly wiped away tears.
It wasn't that she wasn't strong, but she held so many hopes and aspirations within her heart. Under Su Bai's response, all these aspirations seemed to have a chance to come true.
These possibilities moved her to the point of tears.
In the past two weeks of training, their coaches had clearly informed them that the new training plans were meticulously designed by Su Bai over several days. These girls executed the adjusted training content wholeheartedly, either from their confidence in Su Bai or due to an illusion, they all felt their performance and condition had improved during these two weeks.
This National Championships was the moment to verify the results of their training over these past two weeks!
On the curved track, Chen Yadan was in the fifth lane, and Lin Yao was in the fourth lane. One behind the other, they were surrounded by athletes from other provincial teams or their own teammates.
The preliminary round was about to begin.
On the broadcast, the voice of the starter was heard: "Take your marks, set."
As all the athletes got into their starting positions, the sound of the starter pistol also rang out: "Bang!"
"The race has begun!!!"
From the moment the preliminaries started, the big guy named Big Bear next to Su Bai stood up in excitement, waving a flag in his hand and shouting cheers for the girls on the track.
"Come on, Sister Dan!!!"
"Go, Yao Mei!!!"
"Go, Little Miao!!!"
"Go, Lu Lu!!!"
Hearing this string of cheers, Su Bai observed the athletes on the track while chuckling. Alright, this big brother seems to be quite supportive across a broad range, huh?
On the race track, the female athletes were sprinting forward with all their might, driven by the cheers from the spectators. The girls on the women's team were not as explosive and powerful as their male counterparts, resulting in a lack of absolute speed in the 100 meters. However, female athletes often possessed better endurance than male athletes, so their average difference between the 100-meter segments in the 400 meters was slightly lower than that of male athletes. Yet, the extent of this slight difference was still limited.
Although Zheng Xingguo was indeed a veteran coach of the national team, his research on foreign 400-meter training techniques and characteristics was not thorough enough. This directly led him to lean toward traditional domestic training methods. As a result, athletes like Chen Yadan had issues of excessive strength training, excessive overall training volume, and poor rhythmic training effects.
Su Bai was seated in a prime position that was very close to the track. He observed the performance of the athletes on the field while making shorthand notes on his paper that would help him recognize the markings later.
Based on the current situation on the field, the execution of Chen Yadan and Lin Yao over the past two weeks had been good, achieving the preliminary expected results that Su Bai had in mind.
On the track, Chen Yadan herself felt the changes. In the past, she sometimes felt that she had energy but couldn't fully exert it on the track. This sensation had been quite uncomfortable for her. She had discussed this issue with her coach before, but their initial judgment was that due to excessive specialized 400-meter training, she might lack strength, thus requiring leg strength or endurance training. However, after training this way for some time, there hadn't been much improvement.
Chen Yadan originally thought that improving this condition would be difficult. However, over the past half month, after switching to the training program customized by Su Bai, she had clearly felt a reduction in this feeling of having energy but nowhere to use it.
Not only did they have a good feeling about their states during regular training, but their conditions on the race track had also changed compared to the past!
This realization made Lin Yao and Chen Yadan extremely excited, and their performance on the track had indeed significantly improved!
Su Bai nodded slightly as he observed. Lin Yao and Chen Yadan had adapted well to the new technical habits and adjustments. They had made progress in their application of strength techniques compared to the past.
The result of this progress was evident. During the second 100-meter segment on the race track, both Chen Yadan and Lin Yao clearly outpaced the other competitors. Particularly for Chen Yadan, as she approached the second curve, she wasn't too far from the athletes in the seventh lane. It's important to note that the starting point of the seventh lane was about 15 meters ahead of the fifth lane. At this stage, she should theoretically have an absolute advantage over the athlete in the fifth lane. However, the situation on the track was different from this theoretical scenario.
Whether it was the commentary on the sports channel or Big Bear next to Su Bai, both were amazed by Chen Yadan's speed.
"Friends!! Sister Dan is in an amazing state today!" While cheering for the athletes on the track, Big Bear was also providing commentary in the live stream.
The barrage of messages in the live chat was also full of astonishment about Chen Yadan's performance.
"Wow, Sister Dan is awesome today!!!"
"With this speed, could she break her personal best in the preliminaries?"
In the audience stands, due to the performances of Chen Yadan and Lin Yao on the track, the audience's enthusiasm had reached its peak.
"Oh my god, this familiar feeling... Do you all remember Xiao Qiu, Cui Luoheng, Zhang Shuai, and Li Junhao? With such a significant improvement in results, it reminds me of that discussion we had on the forum!"
The audience next to Big Bear was also excitedly watching the track, and because Big Bear's voice was loud, they overheard his words. They turned their heads and asked, "What's the matter? Isn't this the women's race? Why are you talking about Zhang Shuai and the others?"
Big Bear sighed in frustration, "Brother, don't you read sports news? After the Asian Games ended in early September, Su Bai officially took over the national 400-meter project. Even the women's team is under his guidance now! We discussed this on the Athletics Kingdom forum before. We were wondering if the women's team under Su Bai's leadership would also make a huge improvement... And look, it's only been this short of a time? Look at Sister Dan, look at Yao Mei!"
At this point, on the track, after passing the second curve, both Chen Yadan and Lin Yao had already overtaken athletes from other lanes. In the final 100-meter sprint, Chen Yadan and Lin Yao were leading far ahead of the other competitors.
"Wow, Sister Dan and Yao Mei are really amazing today!"
After all the athletes crossed the finish line, Big Bear once again marveled. And if you paid close attention to the barrage in his mobile live chat, you would see that the viewers' emotions were also running high.
"I've watched Chen Yadan's races a few times before, but I never thought she could run this fast... It seems that Coach Su Bai is really exceptional!"
Big Bear immediately nodded, "Exactly! Look at what he did before the Asian Games. He said that Zhang Shuai and Xiao Qiu would make it to the finals, and they did. Not only did they make it to the finals, but Zhang Shuai also won a bronze medal! Then in the 4x400 relay, he aimed for a medal, and they really won a silver medal! And Cui Luoheng... he even brought back a gold medal!"
"If there were still people who doubted his strength before the Asian Games, almost no one dares to say that now after the Asian Games!"...
...
Su Bai hadn't expected that he would be listening to gossip about himself while watching from the audience stands. This feeling of sitting in the crowd while someone next to him showered him with praise made him a bit uncomfortable.
As Big Bear continued to shower him with praise, Big Bear suddenly realized that his friend on the left hadn't shown any reaction from the beginning to now-not only did he not cheer for the athletes during the race, he also didn't celebrate after the race ended. Even now, while they were chatting about gossip, this friend was quiet.
Realizing his friend's silence, Big Bear suddenly remembered him and thought to ask if he was bothering him.
"Um, about this, little buddy, sorry if I've been too talkative. Have you not been talking because you're not used to my chatter? If that's the case, while the second heat of the preliminaries hasn't started, would you like to move somewhere else?"
Although Su Bai felt a bit awkward, he didn't want them to switch seats just because of him, so he waved his hand and said, "It's alright, I've just been busy with other things, that's why I haven't been talking much."
"Ah, that's good, that's good..." Big Bear breathed a sigh of relief. He noticed Su Bai's notebook in his hand and couldn't help but comment, "Hey, little buddy, you came to watch the competition, why are you doing homework?"
Su Bai awkwardly chuckled, not having come up with a proper cover story yet. However, the viewer sitting next to Big Bear, who had been talking to Su Bai, suddenly stared at him in shock and patted Big Bear's shoulder.
"Uh... Su, Su Bai."
"Huh? What's up with Su Bai?" Big Bear was puzzled.
"Not... not that... I mean... that... Su Bai..." The viewer next to him had a stiff expression and pulled out his phone, showing a news article related to Su Bai that he had just been reading. It featured an image of Su Bai from an interview with a sports channel before the Asian Games.
...
...
...
"Damn, little buddy, you're Su Bai?!"
After seeing the interview footage, Big Bear finally understood and began exclaiming a string of words. Clearly, his logic was in chaos, and he struggled to express his feelings accurately.
Under the two of them being excited, the surrounding audience also noticed that Su Bai was sitting next to them. The atmosphere in the audience stands instantly became lively. Those who had come to the national championship were genuine track and field enthusiasts, and they had heard numerous legends about Su Bai recently. However, since Su Bai was a coach, apart from the two interviews on the sports channel, he wasn't usually seen in person. No one had expected that they would be able to witness this legendary figure in person at the national championship. This caused a wave of excitement among the audience.
In Big Bear's live stream room, as the camera was focused on the track, the viewers initially had no idea what was happening. It wasn't until Big Bear exclaimed, "You're Su Bai!" that the audience in the live chat also erupted in commotion.
"What? What's going on? Big Bear, is Su Bai really sitting next to you?!"
"??? Oh my god, Big Bear, how lucky are you? Wait, shouldn't you try to get on his good side? Maybe you can get Su Bai to do some live commentary as well!"
"666, Brother Bear, from now on, you're the European Bear. This luck is unbelievable!"
"By the way, why did Su Bai come to the national championship today?"
"Didn't Big Bear just say? His friend next to him was watching the competition while working on problems... I bet he wasn't doing problems, he was probably observing the athletes, right?"
"Ah, this is like a secret visit in disguise, isn't it? And he got caught by Big Bear! Hahaha, this might be the first time anyone from our forum has had such a close encounter with Su Bai. Big Bear, make the most of this opportunity, see if you can strike up a conversation with the big shot, ask him some questions!"
"Yes, yes, like when Zhang Shuai and Xiao Qiu might break the national record for the 400 meters!"
The live chat was buzzing with excitement, and the same fervor spread to the audience stands. However, even though the audience's spirits were high, Su Bai's identity as the coach of the national team had an intimidating aura. When Su Bai signaled that the next race was about to start, everyone settled down and returned to their seats. Some even took discreet photos of Su Bai.
After everyone in the audience had settled down, they realized, "Oh no, we were so focused on Su Bai that we forgot to check the results of the first group's preliminaries!"
Now, the athletes from the second group had already taken their places on the track, and the scoreboard had been updated to display the names of the participants from the second group.
"Oh dear, we messed up, guys. Did any of you see the results for Sister Dan and the others just now?"
Unfortunately, in Big Bear's live stream room, everyone had been so caught up discussing Su Bai that they had completely forgotten to pay attention to the results of the first group's preliminaries.
Big Bear scratched his head, thinking he might need to check the official report later. However, Su Bai, sitting next to him, suddenly recited a set of numbers.
"First place, Chen Yadan: 52.97 seconds.
Second place, Lin Yao: 53.37 seconds."
?
Hearing Su Bai's numbers, Big Bear's face registered shock once again-damn, this Su Bai, despite all the noise around him, he still managed to pay attention to the results of the first group?
And his second reaction was: Wow, Sister Dan indeed broke her personal best, going under 53 seconds! Yao Mei is also amazing; this improvement is way beyond her previous personal best!
Amidst his shock, Big Bear also realized that the person responsible for Chen Yadan and Lin Yao's incredible improvement was sitting right next to him.
Instantly, Big Bear looked at Su Bai with a hint of admiration in his eyes.
After thinking for a moment, Big Bear took out a bottle of mineral water from his bag and offered it to Su Bai, "Big shot, you've worked hard. Are you thirsty? Would you like some water?"
Looking at Big Bear's flattering demeanor, Su Bai accepted the water with a wry smile and thanked him.
Meanwhile, in Big Bear's live chat, a series of messages flew by, praising Big Bear's fawning behavior and encouraging him.
In the next women's preliminaries, several athletes from the national team who had adjusted their training plans also showed significant improvements in their performances. The degree of improvement was even greater than what Su Bai had anticipated. It was nearly comparable to the data improvement seen in simulated athletes controlled by the system.
It was easy to imagine that these female athletes had meticulously adhered to Su Bai's training requirements during their practice. Although the male athletes had trained hard before the Asian Games, the female team seemed to possess an even stronger spirit of pursuing perfection under pressure.
Thinking of this, Su Bai suddenly came up with an idea. Perhaps during the upcoming training camp, he could consider merging the male and female teams for joint training sessions... and add a bit more pressure to the male team?
As Su Bai contemplated this, in the warm-up area behind the stadium, Qiu Wen suddenly shivered. It seemed like something dangerous was about to happen?
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