Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 09/04/2023
After entering the winter training period, the National Track and Field Team once again trended on social media due to the unique competition mechanism in the 400-meter event. The hashtag #NationalTrackAndFieldTeamTrainingDaily gained attention from people with a sense of humor and was brought to the forefront.
When Zhang Ziyi and the others saw this hashtag, they were at a loss for words.
They had made a mistake. They only remembered that Su Bai had led them to breakthroughs in various achievements, achieving unprecedented results at the Asian Games. They had forgotten what Su Bai had done on the first day he took over the Asian Games training.
He had brought in students from sports schools and had them watch as they were completely dominated by American athletes, right?
How could they forget that just because that incident was in the past?
So now, they had fallen to their current situation...
What was this?
A repetition of history?
At the end of another day of training, the male team members looked at the rankings and saw that today, only Zhang Ziyi and Li Junhao had managed to squeeze into the top five once again. They looked like wilted eggplants.
They are indeed diligent and dedicated to their training. However, training isn't just about completing all the tasks mindlessly. During the process of completion, they need to be fully immersed, paying attention to details in their movements such as arm swing amplitude, stride length, stride frequency control, and other factors like the duration of each foot's contact with the ground and maintaining balance in bilateral force.
If they simply let go and run without any regard for these aspects, it wouldn't be considered effective training, and it might even lead to injuries. Currently, the men's team is gradually approaching the goal of running 200 meters in 25 seconds per set. Each second they improve in speed represents a step closer to the pinnacle of difficulty.
In this process, they need to carefully manage their physical condition. Looking at the attempts by athletes like Qiu Wen, Zhang Ziyi, and Li Junhao, who have challenged the speed of 24 seconds per set and failed, running 25 seconds per set for five sets might be the limit for many of them. They are all challenging their own limits.
In this situation, truly dedicating themselves to training and improving their skills is far more meaningful than merely competing for victory.
Zhang Ziyi is using this reasoning to reassure the male team's athletes. However, he saw Guo Dun giving him a meaningful look, and when he turned around, he saw Chen Yadan standing behind him.
...
...
...
Chen Yadan looked at Zhang Ziyi seriously and asked, "What? Are you suggesting that our women's team is not taking training seriously because we are so determined to win? Is that what you mean?"
"No, that's not what I meant! I didn't mean that!" Zhang Ziyi's face turned red, and he awkwardly apologized, "Dan Jie, that's not what I meant..."
Chen Yadan didn't seem particularly angry. She spoke with utmost seriousness, saying, "While it's true that the training efficiency of the women's team is relatively high, we have also dedicated ourselves fully to complete Coach Su Bai's training program. If the men's team wants to win, they should aim for better training efficiency and quality under the same level of dedication."
He stood there, somewhat stunned. After listening to her words, he, as the mature and responsible captain of the national team, found himself at a loss for how to respond. His intention had been to motivate the male team's athletes, nothing more.
The competition within the team continued, and although Coach Su Bai was ruthless, he still gave the male team a chance to redeem their dignity with a smile. The official Weibo account of the national track and field team would comply with the demands of track and field enthusiasts and announce the names of the top 5 athletes, but this list would be consolidated and released once a month. The specific date would not be disclosed, only the number of times a certain athlete earned the top 5 honor in that month.
This way, although the male and female teams could still be counted by the number of people involved, the male team had hope and motivation to catch up in the coming months. As for whether the female team was willing to be overtaken in the remaining days, that was another matter altogether.
In addition to internal competition, Su Bai certainly couldn't allow the athletes to train aimlessly for an extended period. Long hours of training without seeing results could be demoralizing, regardless of how firm one's confidence and training enthusiasm were initially. In such cases, it was a good idea to hold a competition to reignite the athletes' enthusiasm and then continue with a new round of training burdens.
Of course, it wasn't just the Chinese national team that had this need; teams from various countries all faced similar situations. China often selected teams from other Asian countries for friendly competitions during winter training. These competitions were opportunities for mutual improvement, where they could learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses.
This time, the Chinese national track and field team chose the Japanese national team as their opponent. Both China and Japan, as sports powerhouses in Asia, had previously engaged in friendly competitions in various events. Both teams used each other as whetstones to sharpen their skills and build confidence.
This was also the case for the China-Japan Athletics Challenge, where both teams had their strengths in different events. With a spirit of friendly rivalry, they engaged in this competition to further hone their skills.
After Su Bai announced the information about the upcoming competition for the 400-meter project team, both male and female team members suddenly became excited.
Su Bai had a smile on his face as he said, "We've had internal competition for quite a while now. Next, let's turn our focus outward and engage in competition against our opponents."
Japan had always been strong in the 4x400 meters relay and the 400 meters individual event in Asia. Having Japan as a whetstone for the Chinese team was something Su Bai was quite satisfied with.
There was one thing he didn't say out loud—after all the internal competition and the members torturing each other, it was time to let this group of crazy individuals blow off some steam against external opponents.
While everyone was excited, Qiu Wen suddenly looked at Su Bai and asked, "Xiao Bai... if we win this time, can we have a big feast?"
Su Bai looked at Qiu Wen with a hint of amusement and replied, "Sure, we can."
Seeing Qiu Wen's eyes light up, Su Bai smiled and continued, "For this China-Japan Athletics Challenge, one championship corresponds to three days of top 5 positions and special meals. Two days for the runner up, and one day for third place." He paused and added, "Furthermore, these results will be included in the monthly top 5 rankings."
Upon hearing this, Qiu Wen's already bright eyes sparkled even more, and the other team members also became serious.
During this period, the female team members had developed a habit of taking food photos before meals, and they posted them all on Weibo.
Although the official Weibo account of the National Track and Field Team had not yet started to release their monthly top 5 progress, some sharp-eyed track and field enthusiasts had found the Weibo accounts of male and female team members from the 400-meter project and began to review their frequency of posting food pictures during this period.
Needless to say, during this period, Qiu Wen, who rarely posted pictures of delicious food, received numerous "haha" comments under his latest Weibo post, where he complained about Su Bai being a devil. Some people earnestly advised him to work hard.
In any case, in the current National Track and Field Team's 400-meter project, the act of posting food pictures unexpectedly became a unique badge related to dignity and victory or defeat.
Moreover, Su Bai had just directly stated that these results could be included in the monthly top 5 rankings published by the official Weibo account of the National Track and Field Team. So, the results of this China-Japan Athletics Challenge might be an opportunity for the male team to make a comeback, if they put in the effort.
Of course, if the female team won overwhelmingly while the male team suffered a defeat, it could also be the final straw that crushed the male team's top 5 rankings.
With these thoughts in mind, both the male and female athletes in the team became more eager to compete. Even after finishing a day of training, they would jointly meet with their respective coaches and assistant coaches to review their training results for the day and identify any areas that needed attention or correction.
In the office of the National Track and Field Team, Coach Pei Jin'an asked, "Live streaming? Isn't it just a friendly match, like a practice game? It's normal to have such matches during winter training. Is there really a need for live streaming?"
Su Bai, however, persisted in his request to try live streaming seriously. "Coach Pei, Director Wang from the Athletics Management Center has mentioned this before. The Center has been promoting track and field to a wider audience. Compared to sports like soccer and basketball, which have more social aspects, track and field naturally has some shortcomings. To gain more attention, we need to provide more channels for people to watch us."
"These fancy live broadcasts, although they may not seem helpful for our competition, can have long-term benefits in terms of attracting more viewers, helping them understand track and field, and getting more people interested in it," Su Bai explained.
He smiled and continued, "And besides, the 400-meter athletes have been training so hard for so long. I want them to showcase their improved skills in front of everyone."
At this point, Pei Jin'an also chuckled and said, "You, Little Bai, that long speech earlier was all just a lead-up to this, wasn't it?"
Pei Jin'an smiled while saying this, not taking his last remark too seriously. He had always been an old-school coach who focused solely on training and wasn't keen on these flashy things. However, he was aware of the Athletics Management Center's efforts to promote track and field to a wider audience, and what Su Bai mentioned did align with the center's goals.
After giving it some thought, Pei Jin'an nodded and said, "Alright, what you said makes sense. In that case, I'll have the team contact the sports channel, and we'll give it a try together."
With that, Pei Jin'an furrowed his brows and said, "Hold on, since we're going to do a live broadcast, let's make the competition more formal. I'll discuss it with the team and find a way to cooperate."
So, on that afternoon, Su Bai stayed in Pei Jin'an's office, and after discussing it, they talked to the national team's head coach. Two days later, the official website of the national track and field team, their official social media accounts, the sports channel's news platform, and even sponsors like "Hook" all directly promoted a joint campaign with the following message: "The Asian Six Nations Track and Field Joint Challenge will soon be held in City H, China. This event marks the first-ever Asian six-nation collaboration, jointly hosted by six major Asian track and field powers. The event will directly select the strongest athletes in each discipline, awarding them the title of 'Asian Track and Field Star.'"
This news left domestic track and field enthusiasts in a state of bewilderment. What was the Asian Six Nations Track and Field Joint Challenge? It sounded impressive, especially with mentions of "Asian Track and Field Star" and "the strongest athletes in each discipline." What was even more intriguing was that the news made it to the headlines of the news channel, and the sports channel announced that it would conduct full Asia-wide online streaming for the event.
With an intense promotion campaign, related topics trended on Weibo, with the added twist that this time, the topic received prominent placement and a buzz icon. This essentially conveyed that it was officially promoted with government support—a significant event in its own right.
Su Bai hadn't anticipated that his earlier suggestion would lead to such a massive campaign. What started as a simple China vs. Japan track and field match had expanded into an event involving six major Asian countries. The Athletics Management Center had approved his idea and swiftly mobilized professionals to highlight key promotional elements and launch a massive advertising campaign. They had even hinted that if this initiative proved successful this year, they could consider expanding it in the following years, possibly creating a series of challenge matches for athletes to validate their progress during winter training.
Su Bai was bewildered, and the athletes were equally confused. What had initially been a China vs. Japan competition had suddenly become a six-nation challenge. The event's significance seemed to have suddenly escalated.
Of course, besides them, even track and field enthusiasts were perplexed by the unexpected turn of events.
Of course, everyone knew that during the annual winter training phase, the national team would take the athletes out for various challenge matches. However, no previous year's challenge match had garnered such attention.
Nonetheless, this level of attention was welcomed by track and field enthusiasts. It indicated that China was increasingly emphasizing the promotion of track and field events, which was undoubtedly a good thing!
So, with eager anticipation from the audience, and athletes putting in even more effort after learning about the significant upgrade of the event, the Athletics Management Center demonstrated its powerful event planning capabilities. They rapidly set up the event at the sports stadium in the perpetually warm and pleasant H city instead of choosing the colder B city. Whether it was foreign athletes or Chinese national team members in winter training at the athletics base, they all gathered in H city for this 3-day competition before the New Year.
On December 31, 2018, on the eve of the New Year, the Asian Six Nations Athletics Joint Challenge officially kicked off in H city.
This time, tickets were not sold to the public. Only a small number of tickets were distributed through online promotions and lotteries. This was probably the only similarity between this challenge match and previous ones. Attending this event in person as a regular spectator was already considered quite fortunate.
On the internet, due to the high level of promotion by the Athletics Management Center for this new format of the challenge match, there was a lot of buzz and excitement surrounding the event among online users who had learned about it.
Starting from last year, track and field, as a sports category, had suddenly become a frequent topic in the news. From the 400 meters sprint to the 110 meters hurdles and then to Su Bai's live broadcasts and the unique competition mechanism in the 400 meters event, these recurrent news stories started piquing the curiosity of audiences who previously had little interest in track and field.
So, when the live broadcasts on the Sports Channel's online platform officially began, in addition to the influx of track and field enthusiasts, many ordinary online users, who were typically uninterested in track and field, tuned in.
At the H city sports stadium, the golden commentary duo for track and field events, Shao Minyi and Li Sen, were not hiding in the broadcasting room this time. Instead, they were present at the venue, providing live commentary and on-site analysis for the event.
"It's been a while since I've been to a live event like this," Shao Minyi said with a smile. "Li Sen, have you heard? This Six Nations Joint Challenge was originally proposed by Coach Su Bai. I don't think he expected his proposal to turn into such a large-scale competition."
For this event, each participating country had brought around fifty to sixty athletes, resulting in a total of nearly 400 participants, which far exceeded the scale of any previous winter training challenge matches.
"I not only know about this but also know that Coach Su's 400-meter athletes have each made bold statements. They are determined to achieve good results in this indoor competition..." Li Sen chuckled, "I've heard that in the 400-meter event of our track and field team, there is an intense rivalry between the men's and women's teams. Coaches from other events are envious of this situation, but unfortunately, Coach Su Bai's reward system isn't easy to replicate."
In the chat between Shao Minyi and Li Sen, the live competition was about to begin.
To emphasize the competitive nature of the event, during the preliminary round groupings, aside from the two Chinese athletes placed in the same group as the host nation, the rest of the athletes were evenly distributed. The goal was to create a sense of competition among athletes from different countries starting from the preliminaries.
Not only the Chinese athletes but also those from other countries found this new Six Nations Joint Challenge quite exciting. After two to three months of winter training, participating in such a high-level competition made all the athletes on the field very excited.
In other words, both Chinese and other Asian athletes appeared eager and enthusiastic.
In the live chat, even though the viewers and track and field enthusiasts couldn't watch the event in person, they could show their support through comments. So, before the first 100-meter race of the morning began, the barrage was already filled with waves of cheering words.
As the women's 100-meter sprint started as the first preliminary event, the audience was already excited. Later, when the men's 100 meters preliminary group took the stage and they saw that Fang Yu was in the first group of the men's preliminaries, the viewers in the live chat enthusiastically applauded with text.
This was Fang Yu's first competition after the world championship qualification standards were announced! Track and field enthusiasts believed that they could gauge Fang Yu's current form from this race. Of course, if he could break the 10.10-second barrier in today's competition, that would be even more wonderful!
The track and field enthusiasts were eager, and little did they know that at this moment, Fang Yu also held high expectations.
Ever since Su Bai proved his data prediction ability earlier, Fang Yu had switched to the comprehensive training plan provided by Su Bai under the guidance of Coach Pei Jin'an.
However, it remained unknown whether it was psychological or not, but after switching to Su Bai's training program, Fang Yu indeed felt that his overall state had become somewhat more relaxed than before.
However, Su Bai also explained to him that the overall adjustment of his state and improvement in results required some time to accumulate. Therefore, in the short term, he only needed to focus on various training data and technical adjustments without overly emphasizing his specific performance.
With Su Bai's instructions in mind, during these two months of training, Fang Yu had not paid particular attention to his results. Today, on the competition field, he would be running at full speed for the first time in a long time.
Could this period of winter training bring him surprises in today's competition? Nobody knew.
With such a mindset, Fang Yu didn't hold back during the preliminary rounds. When he effortlessly crossed the finish line in first place, the few hundred spectators in the stadium warmly applauded him. However, the commentators, Shao Minyi and Li Sen, who had initially thought that Fang Yu was in good form today but had deliberately held back in the preliminary rounds, were taken aback when they saw Fang Yu's result.
"Fang Yu's preliminary round time is... 10.03 seconds?!"
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