Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 10/01/2023
Chapter 155: The Competition is About to Begin & the Mindset of the Women's Team
The upcoming World Athletics Relay Championship is not only crucial for the relay teams' qualification for the World Championships and the Tokyo Olympics but has also gained attention due to the "Revenge Battle" of the Japanese team. Meanwhile, during the broadcast on Yokohama TV in Japan, coaches from the Chinese and Japanese athletics teams will provide commentary and analysis for the event.
After receiving this series of information, the audience on the internet, who were already interested in the event, had even greater expectations for the competition scheduled to start the next day.
On that night, the athletes preparing for the high-intensity competition on the following day had already started their rest preparations. In contrast to the restless online fans, these athletes were able to get good rest.
On the second day, May 11th, the long-anticipated World Athletics Relay Championship began with the first day of competition.
The schedule for May 11th included the preliminary and final rounds of the mixed shuttle hurdle relay, as well as the preliminary rounds of the men's and women's 4x100m relays, the men's and women's 4x400m relays, and the mixed 2x2x400m relay. The latter event, a first-time appearance at the relay championship, required one male and one female 400m runner from each team, and each would run two 400m legs. It was highly likely that the most outstanding male and female 400m runners from each team would compete in this event, potentially affecting the Olympic qualification chances for the 4x400m relay sub-events. Due to the limited number of participating teams, this event would proceed directly to the final on May 11th.
The first event of the day was scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM, and the national team arrived at the Yokohama Stadium around 3 PM to prepare for the evening's competitions.
However, Su Bai was on a different schedule. While the relay team members headed to Yokohama Stadium, he was accompanied by a translator from the Japan Athletics Association and went to the Yokohama TV broadcast center.
When Su Bai and his translator arrived at the TV station, coach Ryuunosuke Arakawa, who had invited Su Bai for this "exchange" a day earlier, was already present.
This was the second meeting between Su Bai and Arakawa. Su Bai was still wearing the sportswear sponsored by Hook during this encounter, while Arakawa had opted for an elegant suit, clearly emphasizing the importance of the evening's live broadcast.
After exchanging smiles and greetings, the staff from Yokohama TV and the Japan Athletics Association were also on the scene, and they immediately began discussing the upcoming live broadcast process with both Su Bai and Arakawa.
In China, the discussions and anticipation regarding the relay championship from the previous day had left domestic netizens eager for more. Even before the competition had started, many people were already discussing the evening's event schedule and the showdown between Su Bai and Ryuunosuke Arakawa.
On the Athletics Kingdom forum, some users had already listed the highlights of the evening.
Thread Title: 【8 Events, 5 World Championship and Tokyo Olympics Qualification Spots, Happening Tonight!】
Thread Content: 【It's a pity that we can't watch Yokohama TV's live broadcast in China, and there's no Chinese translation. Otherwise, the showdown between Su Bai and Ryuunosuke Arakawa outside the arena tonight would also be an unmissable highlight.】
3rd Comment: 【The OP summed it up nicely, but overall, the most important thing is the qualification for the 5 Tokyo Olympics spots. Whether we can make it depends on tonight.】
5th Comment:【Tonight's competition is truly a rare event where the preliminary rounds are more nerve-wracking than the finals.】
Online, viewers were nervously discussing the upcoming competition, while at the Yokohama Stadium, the national relay team athletes who would face this major event in person appeared much calmer.
This calmness didn't stem from overconfidence or a lack of understanding about the competition. Every athlete present had given their all in preparation for tonight's event. In their current state of calmness, they were eager for the competition that was about to begin.
At 5:30 PM, the floodlights at Yokohama Stadium lit up the large arena, making it as bright as daylight. The spectators who had been waiting outside the stadium began entering the venue for the event.
The track and field team members were now on the warm-up field, each going through their pre-competition routines. Though the warm-up area was some distance from the main stadium, all the athletes could already hear the loud and coordinated cheering coming from the stadium.
The Yokohama Stadium, capable of accommodating up to 70,000 spectators, was now completely filled. Many in the audience were holding Japanese flags, and some were wearing headbands and blowing horns to show their support.
At exactly 6:00 PM, inside the Yokohama TV studio:
There were four individuals seated at the broadcasting desk in front of the camera. From the TV screen's perspective, the broadcast desk resembled those seen in news broadcasts. There were two desks arranged in a figure-eight shape. The host and Arakawa were on the left side, while Su Bai and the translator were on the right.
As the clock struck 6:00, the scheduled live broadcast time had arrived. Following the cue from the on-site director, the Yokohama TV broadcast of the World Relay Championships officially began.
The on-site host delivered the opening remarks, introducing Arakawa and Su Bai to the audience. After the host's introduction, both Arakawa and Su Bai greeted the viewers.
As a nation with a passionate love for track and field, the broadcast of the World Relay Championships by Yokohama TV had garnered significant attention. Whether the audience had prior knowledge of Arakawa's "revenge plan" from the day before or were completely unaware of the circumstances, they were all taken aback when they heard the host introduce Su Bai.
【Wow, this is a big deal. Is this Chinese track and field coach really this young?】
【I thought Arakawa was already an incredible young talent, but this Chinese coach looks like he's in his early twenties, right?】
【Wow, he's only 24 years old? At this age, in Japan, people are usually preparing picnics for their senior colleagues during cherry blossom season or guarding cherry blossom parks the day before. He's already a national-level coach for China?】
【Incredible. And his Chinese team has been consistently defeating the Japanese team. Is it really possible for such a genius to exist in this world?】
As the Yokohama TV broadcast began, discussions about the track and field relay championship, as well as Su Bai, started flooding social media platforms in Japan, including Twitter and LINE, a chat application.
In the Yokohama TV studio, although this was Su Bai's first experience with television broadcasting, he was doing well overall. With the assistance of a translator, he only needed to provide concise answers to the host's questions.
The host had just finished introducing Arakawa and Su Bai's "off-field competition" for the evening to the TV audience. Regarding the eight events scheduled for the night, both Arakawa and Su Bai needed to write down their predictions for the teams that would advance in each event. During the breaks between events, the accuracy of their predictions would be assessed.
It was now 6:20 PM, and the first event, the mixed shuttle hurdle relay preliminaries, was about to begin at the Yokohama Stadium.
In the athlete tunnel at the stadium, the teams for the mixed hurdle relay were already on the field. Meanwhile, the Chinese 4x400m relay women's team, led by Chen Yadan were on the warm-up field behind the tunnel. They were preparing for their last warm-up adjustments, getting ready to compete after the mixed hurdle relay event.
After the Asian Championships, Su Bai had made slight adjustments to the training direction of the women's relay team. However, he had stated in advance that these adjustments were minor tweaks based on their long-term training direction. For this World Relay Championships, including Su Bai, Pei Jin'an, Zheng Xingguo, and other coaches, they didn't want to put too much pressure on the women's team.
However, having no pressure was actually the greatest pressure for the girls on the women's team.
Previously, during the Asian Championships, although the girls weren't entirely satisfied with their performance at the time, they were still delighted to have won a bronze medal.
But now, for this World Relay Championships, the girls didn't receive a task from Su Bai to make it to the finals. Su Bai's requirement was to make it into the B group finals and secure a top-three position in the B group.
This request left the female athletes in the track and field team momentarily stunned, but they soon understood Su Bai's intention.
——Su Bai didn't believe that they could earn a spot in the Tokyo Olympics through this competition.
The so-called B group finals were for teams that finished 9th to 16th in the preliminary rounds. These teams would also compete in the finals, but the final results would only be recorded by their rankings, and they wouldn't participate in the medal contention.
Chen Yadan still remembered how she instinctively stood up at that moment, wanting to ask Su Bai to change the task. However, she rarely saw a serious disapproval on Su Bai's face.
She also remembered the conversation between her and Su Bai at that time.
"Do you remember how fast the American women's team can run?"
"...Within 3 minutes and 23 seconds."
"What about the average performance of teams like Poland, the UK, Jamaica, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Canada in major competitions?"
"...Around 3 minutes and 28 seconds."
"So, what is our team's current personal best?"
When she heard Su Bai's question, Chen Yadan didn't answer.
At that moment, she suddenly realized that since Su Bai took charge of the 400m project in the national team, they had become accustomed to progress, accustomed to achieving results and achievements beyond their previous records in competitions.
Even though they weren't completely satisfied with their performance at the Asian Championships, they felt that the result wasn't their limit, and they could do even better. They understood that their individual strengths within the relay team were not evenly balanced, and when it came to individual abilities, they still had a significant gap to bridge to reach the world's top level.
But... why did they subconsciously believe that under Su Bai's guidance, they could naturally challenge and qualify for the Tokyo Olympics?
Their current team's personal best (pb) was 3 minutes 33.88 seconds, which meant they had at least a 5-second gap compared to the teams Su Bai had mentioned. This meant that on average, those teams' athletes could beat them by at least 1 second per lap.
Facing opponents with such a significant gap in abilities, they believed they could overcome them through extraordinary performance and bursts of speed...
It was in that moment that Chen Yadan and her teammates realized that despite their continuous effort and hard work, they had become complacent. They had drifted away from the right mindset of working diligently and staying grounded.
Under Su Bai's firm guidance, the female relay team, led by Chen Yadan, had finally adjusted their mindset. During the past month and a half of training, they had redefined their goals – their current objective was to perform to the best of their abilities.
Regardless of their opponents' nationalities, their focus was on doing their personal best in the competition.
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Chapter 156: The Women's Relay Team's Group of Death
In China, this was the first time that the sports channel had purchased the broadcasting rights for the World Relay Championships. It was also the first time that many Chinese viewers had the opportunity to watch the World Relay Championships.
In the minds of many, the concept of relay races might have been limited to events like the 4x100m relay. However, when they looked at the event schedule for the World Relay Championships, many viewers realized that there were various relay events beyond the 4x100m relay that they had never encountered before.
For example, the current event taking place was the mixed-gender obstacle relay. In this event, male and female athletes were positioned at opposite ends of the obstacle course, and they had to continuously leap over hurdles.
The obstacles in this race were the hurdles placed on the track.
There were not many teams participating in the mixed-gender obstacle relay, only six in total. However, since the relay started in opposite directions, each team needed to use two lanes. Therefore, these six teams were split into one or two subgroups, each competing separately.
At this moment, athletes on the track were giving their all to clear the hurdles, competing for victory on their respective lanes.
In front of their television screens, many Chinese viewers found this new relay event quite intriguing.
In the broadcast studio of Yokohama TV, Su Bai and Ryuunosuke Arakawa had just written down their predictions for the performance of the teams in these two subgroups.
In truth, because there were only six teams participating in the mixed-gender obstacle relay, and teams like the United States and Jamaica were among them, making predictions for the top four teams to advance from these six teams was not particularly difficult.
Before the subgroup matches began, Su Bai and Arakawa had each revealed their predictions: the United States, Jamaica, Australia, and Japan.
Both sides might have slightly different opinions about the rankings among these four teams, but there was no dispute about which countries' teams would advance.
The reason was simple. Although there was a team from France participating in the event, their athletes' performances were average, and it was clear that they were only here for the experience. Besides the French team, the last team from Papua New Guinea had an even more noticeable gap in athlete strength compared to the other teams. By simply eliminating these options, the correct answer could be deduced.
After the two subgroup matches of the mixed-gender obstacle relay, Arakawa and Su Bai exchanged friendly smiles. During the recent matches, Arakawa had also provided commentary on the competition's progress. With the Japanese Athletics Association's interpreter present by Su Bai's side, the translation was quite proficient, allowing Su Bai to quickly understand Arakawa's explanations.
Yokohama TV, Arakawa, and Su Bai had established a tacit understanding before the live broadcast began. Everyone would leave some time for Su Bai to provide brief commentary. The interpreter would do real-time translation.
In the first heat of the mixed-gender obstacle relay preliminaries, Arakawa and Su Bai also tried this approach. So, even though Su Bai didn't speak much, he left behind concise commentary.
However, due to communication difficulties, many Japanese viewers still had their attention primarily on Ryuunosuke Arakawa. Their impressions of Su Bai were limited to being "reserved," "talkative," and "young."
【Wow, up to this point, it's still Coach Arakawa who seems more intriguing! But Coach Su from China is indeed so young that it's astonishing. At this point, I'm still surprised by his age.】
【Well, that's true, but when we discuss coaches, shouldn't we focus on their professionalism? This whole 'intriguing' thing gives off an impolite and awkward vibe!】
Of course, neither Arakawa nor Su Bai in the broadcast studio knew what people were discussing on the internet. The broadcast continued, and just now, the final results of the mixed-gender obstacle relay group races had been announced, including the rankings of the four advancing groups.
With the on-field competition momentarily paused, the staff were swiftly preparing the track. Inside the broadcast room, host Naomura Hiroshi laughed and turned the conversation to Arakawa and Su Bai's predictions for the team's performance in the recent race.
"Indeed, both coaches have incredible foresight! Whether it's Mr. Arakawa or Mr. Su, they accurately predicted which four teams would successfully advance," Naomura Hiroshi said with admiration. "It seems that in the first round of competition, the two coaches played to a draw."
"No," Ryuunosuke Arakawa rejected the host's words with a furrowed brow. "When it comes to predicting the final ranking of the advancing teams, the victor should be Su."
Arakawa's statement left the host momentarily stunned. Meanwhile, the interpreter was rapidly conveying the on-field situation to Su Bai.
Upon hearing Arakawa's persistent stance, Su Bai turned his head towards Arakawa's direction and calmly nodded in agreement.
The day before, Su Bai had already gained some understanding of this Japanese coach's personality after hearing about his series of actions. Ryuunosuke Arakawa was a proud, stubborn individual who pursued absolute victory. He had a strong desire to win, along with intense self-confidence.
This wasn't a bad thing. Arakawa indeed possessed remarkable abilities, which had allowed him to reach his current position at such a young age in an environment that highly valued seniority and hierarchy like Japan. His ability alone was worthy of respect.
However, respect didn't mean Su Bai intended to go easy on Arakawa in today's "duel."
Su Bai could tell that Arakawa was the kind of person who would go all out and fiercely compete with anyone he had in his sights. Right now, the Chinese team and Su Bai were his "target." He wanted to set a challenging goal for his team by using the performance and progress of the Chinese team and make his athletes strive to catch up with the Chinese team all the way.
This wasn't a bad thing in itself—having opponents and goals was beneficial for a team's growth. However, his way of challenging the Chinese team was quite high-profile, and if not handled carefully, it could easily spiral out of control.
Su Bai had no intention of allowing his team to be persistently targeted by such an opponent. So, what he needed to do during this World Athletics Relay Championships was to completely repel Arakawa's intentions, both at the team level and his personal level, regardless of how it might be achieved.
He wanted Ryuunosuke Arakawa to switch his target of competition.
After noticing Su Bai's calm and distant gaze, Arakawa also sensed Su Bai's resistance to him. He didn't care about it and shifted his focus to the next event about to begin—the women's 4x400m relay.
This relay race had a total of 21 participating teams, divided into three preliminary groups. The top two from each group would directly advance, and the remaining two slots would be filled by selecting the top two from the remaining teams.
At this moment, the first group of the preliminaries had officially entered the field. China's women's 4x400m relay team was assigned to Group 1. However, they shared the stage with top-tier teams in this event, including the United States, the Netherlands, France, and others.
For the Chinese team, this preliminary group was a formidable "death group."
On the field, the Chinese 4x400m relay team, led by Chen Yadan, had already taken their positions. Chen Yadan, who was running the first leg, was assigned to the outermost lane, Lane 8—this was the position assigned to the Chinese team in this competition.
A tough "death" preliminary group coupled with an unfavorable outer lane position.
From the moment they learned about their lane assignment, Chen Yadan and her teammates felt their hearts sink.
Watching the live broadcast on their television screens, the audience was hearing about this preliminary group and China's lane position for the first time. Instantly, many track and field enthusiasts couldn't help but feel a jolt in their hearts.
They had already known that the women's 4x400m relay team was likely not as strong as other teams. In private discussions among track and field enthusiasts, they speculated that the only event Su Bai was uncertain about in his "secure two, compete for three" strategy might be the women's relay.
However, even though they understood this, deep down, many track and field fans still harbored some hidden hopes. For example, they might have thought that if they got lucky during the preliminaries and were placed in a group with teams that didn't perform well, there might be a chance to snatch a top-two spot.
There were quite a few people with these hopeful thoughts. But now, after seeing the preliminary groupings and lane assignments on the track, the hearts of these track and field enthusiasts instantly shattered into pieces.
Just look at the teams in the same preliminary group on the track. Who were they?
The United States? Germany?
And then there were the Netherlands, Italy, France, Chile...
After seeing this list of countries, track and field enthusiasts who were familiar with the performance of these national teams turned green in the face.
The public chat on the sports channel's live stream fell into silence when viewers saw the members of all the teams in this preliminary group.
After a while, a line of text suddenly appeared in the chat:
【...With this team lineup, and we're placed in the outermost lane... I just hope we don't finish last now.】
After this line appeared, several +1s quickly followed in the barrage of comments.
Indeed, for the Chinese girls in the team, the draw for today's preliminary rounds seemed overly harsh.
Chen Yadan had already adjusted her starting block position. After a couple of trial runs, she returned to her starting block, standing with her hands on her hips and her head down, clearly adjusting her emotional state.
In the preparation area, athletes from various countries stood behind the referee's table in the order they would compete. Lin Yao and the others wore solemn expressions.
Even though they had received a stern lecture from Su Bai before, they already had a rather pessimistic outlook on the competition. However, they never thought that the situation would deteriorate to this extent.
Faced with the collective strength of these teams, did they really have to settle for last place?
No...
They were not willing!
Inside the Yohohama TV studio, after seeing the Chinese women's relay team take the stage, Ryuunosuke Arakawa suddenly turned to Su Bai and said, "Su-kun, the team you're leading is about to compete. Perhaps we can make a guess about what kind of result your team can achieve?"
Facing Arakawa's clearly provocative proposal, Su Bai calmly glanced at him, then smiled and replied, "Sure."
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