Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 10/08/2023
Chapter 223: Unexpected Challenges
At the same time, it was 7:20 in the evening in Doha, and the semifinal round of the men's 110m hurdles was about to begin. Leading the way was Lu Mengfan, who belonged to the first group of the semifinals.
The semifinals of the 110m hurdles, as usual, consisted of only three groups. The only difference was that three athletes could advance from each group, taking the top three positions among the remaining competitors.
In the evening's semifinal line-up, Cui Luoheng's group was not as competitive as the tough battles he faced in the heats. Simply looking at the list of athletes, Cui Luoheng's group in the semifinals seemed to offer some hope of advancing.
On the other hand, Lu Mengfan's luck wasn't as good. In his group, not only was Vladimir present, but also French star Fabregas, Barbadian athlete Aubrey, and the American competitor Jagger.
Surrounded by such strong opponents, Lu Mengfan seemed to be in a more precarious position.
On the track, the athletes from the first semifinal group were already lined up, and all eight of them were ready to compete for a spot in the final.
Lu Mengfan was among them. He crouched down on the starting blocks, adjusting them to the angle that suited him best. Then, he leaned forward, ready to start on this track and find his optimal condition.
Beside him, the other seven athletes were either stretching or relaxing their bodies. Faced with this final hurdle before the final, none of the athletes were taking it lightly.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the live broadcast is currently showing the competition of the first group of the men's 110m hurdles semifinals at the Doha World Championships. As we can see, the athletes are prepared at the starting line, and the tense semifinal is about to begin!"
Commentators Shao Minyi and Li Sen were providing commentary on the current situation of the race.
"Tonight's semifinal presents Lu Mengfan with strong opponents, but we still hope that he can maintain a calm mindset and give his best to showcase his strength and talent!"
Even though Cui Luoheng had emerged, seemingly overshadowing Lu Mengfan's once-glowing reputation, Lu Mengfan had maintained a positive mindset throughout. He didn't succumb to despair because Cui Luoheng had taken his place.
Over the past year, Lu Mengfan's performance had steadily improved. However, similar to Cui Luoheng's situation, his improvements in performance couldn't match the memories that track and field enthusiasts held of the era when he was the reigning champion. In the current climate, where even Cui Luoheng's 13.17-second performance failed to amaze, Lu Mengfan's slight improvements were easily overlooked by track and field enthusiasts.
This situation was largely a result of the interplay between the era of the former hurdles champion and the subsequent period marked by a lack of talent, which had made track and field enthusiasts in the country sensitive to the performance levels in the 110m hurdles. They often found themselves in a state of confusion.
On the race track, Lu Mengfan had already focused his attention on the task at hand. Performance and qualification were not at the forefront of his mind. What concerned him more was the performance he could deliver on this particular track today.
As the live camera focused on the starting line, the race was about to begin. The eight athletes on the track crouched at their starting blocks, their hands on the ground. Their gaze was fixed on the narrow stretch of track in front of them.
"On your marks."
"Get set."
"Bang!"
With the familiar and simple sound of the starting gun, they pushed off their blocks with tremendous force, launching themselves like arrows down the track!
Lu Mengfan was positioned in lane eight for this race. His start was exceptional today, and during the initial acceleration phase, he even briefly held the top two positions among the eight athletes in his group. From the rapid start to the first hurdle, Lu Mengfan displayed a fierce determination that he had never shown before.
Unfortunately, the fiery determination that Lu Mengfan initially displayed couldn't be sustained for long. It was evident that while attacking the first three hurdles, he not only maintained his original speed but also improved upon it. However, when he reached the fourth hurdle, he accidentally hit it during his approach. This abrupt collision with the hurdle caused a sudden loss of speed. Moreover, on the seventh lane, Aubrey also hit a hurdle at the fifth hurdle, and the movement of the hurdle affected Lu Mengfan on the eighth lane.
Due to his own mistake at the fourth hurdle and the significant mistake by Aubrey, Lu Mengfan's aggressive start was severely hampered, especially after the seventh hurdle.
By the time they reached the seventh hurdle, Lu Mengfan, who had initially been in the top three, had fallen to sixth place.
While Lu Mengfan on the track didn't give up due to the mistakes and Aubrey's influence, his original finishing speed wasn't strong enough. At this point, through the live broadcast, it was clear that he was pushing himself to the limit, but this effort couldn't help him regain his initial advantage.
Ultimately, when he crossed the finish line, Lu Mengfan could only manage to finish fifth. However, with a time of 13.58 seconds and a fifth-place finish, his chances of advancing to the next round were virtually eliminated.
"...What a pity." Shao Min looked at Lu Mengfan, whose face displayed deep regret after crossing the finish line, and she couldn't hide her disappointment. "Little Lu had an excellent start and transition today, but his stability on the hurdles was somewhat lacking, which led to a minor mistake on the fourth hurdle."
"Aubrey's significant hurdle collision at the fifth hurdle completely disrupted Little Lu's rhythm."
Shao Min and Li Sen quickly analyzed the key moments of Lu Mengfan's performance, but the final result had already been determined. They could only watch as Lu Mengfan's journey in this year's World Championships came to an end.
When Lu Mengfan left the track, there was clearly a sense of disappointment on his face. Before today's semifinal, he did have ambitions. He had been in good form lately, hoping to challenge his personal best in today's race. However, things didn't go as planned, and he ended up with a time of 13.58 seconds.
As Lu Mengfan exited the field, the athletes in the second semifinal group, including Cui Luoheng, were getting ready to compete. As the two groups of athletes crossed paths, Lu Mengfan happened to see Cui Luoheng approaching. He made a fist and waved it in Cui Luoheng's direction, sending him a gesture of encouragement.
In the previous first semifinal group, Cui Luoheng had also seen Aubrey's significant hurdle collision at the fifth hurdle, which was the root cause of Lu Mengfan's disrupted rhythm.
For the athletes about to compete, the question of whether their fellow athletes would hit hurdles and whether it would affect them was an unpredictable factor.
For some reason, Cui Luoheng, who hadn't felt fear on the track for a long time, suddenly remembered the frustrating feeling of being stuck on the track. This feeling was fleeting, and he quickly suppressed it. However, he was also acutely aware that Aubrey's hurdle collision in the first race, despite not directly affecting him, had caused a subtle discomfort in his psyche.
An athlete's mental state before a competition is unpredictable, and no one can say which moment will be influenced by certain images and scenes. Cui Luoheng had thought that, with the help of Su Bai and the adjustments he had made over the past year, his competitive mindset should be very stable. But just before taking the field today, he still felt his strong fighting spirit. Yet, at this moment, he could also clearly sense his resistance to the disruption of his racing rhythm.
Realizing all this, Cui Luoheng was already on the starting line. He continued to calmly adjust his starting blocks while trying to relax his state as much as possible. He followed the method Su Bai had taught him, adjusting his breathing rhythm and narrowing his perception of the surroundings, focusing only on himself.
However...
This unexpected state today left him completely unsure whether this method was still effective.
At this point, all the athletes had completed their pre-race preparations, and there were only a few minutes left until the official start of the race. Cui Luoheng had never anticipated encountering such a problem without any warning in a competition as important as the World Championships semifinals.
The live camera was sweeping across the faces of the athletes. When it reached Cui Luoheng, it only captured him furrowing his brow, seemingly contemplating a difficult problem. Aside from that, his expression remained close to his usual cold demeanor.
In the audience seats, Su Bai, who had been attentively watching the direction of the track, suddenly furrowed his brow as well. He looked in the direction of Cui Luoheng and displayed an unusual seriousness in his eyes.
Here it comes.
Su Bai sighed softly in his heart, and his brow furrowed even more.
Actually, Cui Luoheng had always claimed to have poor mental resilience in the past, a reason that Su Bai was willing to believe because, in the beginning, the issue that troubled Cui Luoheng had not been completely resolved.
Cui Luoheng's acute perception of his own rhythm and the rhythm imposed by the surrounding athletes, although suppressed through a special breathing control method, was only the first stage of adjustment for him.
This adjustment minimized Cui Luoheng's sensitivity to his own rhythm and external factors. It was a decent control state, but Cui Luoheng couldn't maintain it indefinitely.
Athletes on the field have a high degree of control over their bodies, but they also have to release their emotions and states intensely. The larger the competition, the stronger the emotional and state release from the athlete.
Persistently trying to control one's perception range would conflict with the current competitive state.
What Cui Luoheng really needed to do was not continue attempting to control his perception but to maintain his rhythm firmly, even if he sensed the rhythm of the surrounding athletes. This challenge was not easy for Cui Luoheng, and Su Bai knew that Cui Luoheng would always have to face this day. However, he didn't expect this day to come on the stage of the World Championships semifinals...
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Chapter 224: 110m Hurdles Semifinals - Cui Luoheng
"Alright, the competition is about to begin."
In the sports channel's broadcast room, Shao Minyi and Li Sen were unaware of the challenges Cui Luoheng was currently facing as he crouched on the starting blocks, waiting for the race to start.
After all, in the previous day's preliminaries, Cui Luoheng had been in excellent form. In the eyes of Shao Minyi, Li Sen, and the audience, although it might be challenging for Cui Luoheng to break his personal best today, maintaining a time around 13.25 seconds should not be a problem. As long as he could stay within this time range, a spot in the finals was almost guaranteed.
In the just-concluded first group of preliminaries, Vladimir secured first place in the group, while Fabregas finished second. These two athletes directly advanced to the next round, with times of 13.12 seconds and 13.20 seconds, respectively. The third-place finisher, Jagger, ran a time of 13.44 seconds, and his chances of advancing were slim.
And in the second semifinal group where Cui Luoheng was competing, the overall strength of the athletes was slightly lower than that of the first semifinal group. If Cui Luoheng could run within 13.25 seconds, reaching the finals would not be a difficult task. Alternatively, a time of 13.25 seconds would likely secure him a spot through the supplementary qualification.
"In this current competition, we hope Cui Luoheng can maintain a stable state. Right now, focus, stability, and precise hurdling techniques are the key factors for victory."
As the competition was about to begin, facing this crucial semifinal, Shao Minyi and Li Sen didn't say much more. The audience in front of their televisions also watched the screen nervously, listening to the pounding of their hearts, eagerly awaiting the start of this event.
At the starting line of the semifinal, Cui Luoheng's nerves were a bit tense. He hadn't expected that he would suddenly feel anxious after maintaining excellent form for over a year.
Crouching on the starting blocks, his knees on the ground, there was a momentary sense of bewilderment in his mind. However, this confusion was quickly suppressed by the voice of determination and the desire to win within him.
He wanted to win, really badly.
He remembered how he felt two years ago when consecutive failures had shattered his confidence. The feeling of helplessness, of being unable to compete with the rhythm of other athletes, and the agony of being disrupted by their pace and doubting himself.
In two years, he had emerged from the initial pain of self-doubt and took strides on the track that he couldn't have imagined before.
In this short two-year period, he had not only improved his technique but also the self-confidence that he had almost denied himself.
Cui Luoheng pursed his lips, and the palm of his hand, pressed against the ground, slightly curled as if to grip tightly, and then relaxed again. He raised his head and glanced in the direction of the audience, where he saw a gaze that had been locked onto him all along.
His vision was excellent, but no matter how good his eyesight was, he couldn't see the expression on Su Bai's face from such a distance between the track and the audience. However, when he saw Su Bai sitting upright in the audience, his initially bewildered heart completely steadied.
He thought that even though he had encountered an unexpected issue, he would be fine!
In the past, he used to be bewildered and unsure, doubting himself because he hadn't truly proven himself. But now, he was different. He knew that he had enough talent, enough ability, and his strength on the track wouldn't lose to anyone present!
He might be influenced by the rhythms of the surrounding competitors, but what he could clearly feel was still his own rhythm.
He believed that over the past two years, Su Bai had accompanied him to gradually sharpen his rhythm, and it had become deeply ingrained in his instincts. He shouldn't be affected by anything anymore.
He remembered what Su Bai had told him: 【Your keen perceptual abilities are actually your innate advantage. Right now, you can only control them within the scope you can manage. But one day, you will be able to truly control and use them correctly.】
He thought, that day had come, and it was definitely today.
This thought flashed through Cui Luoheng's mind as he glanced at Su Bai in the audience once more before turning his gaze back to the track in front of him.
On the track, all eight athletes were already crouched on the starting blocks. To Cui Luoheng's left, in lane six, McCleod was adjusting his body posture. The other athletes were all in position.
Before long, McCleod was also ready. The noisy cheers from the audience had stopped. Although Cui Luoheng had given up control of his extraordinary perceptual abilities, he still followed the familiar breathing technique as if it were an instinct, allowing himself to enter a state of focus and calm.
At this stage, the only difference from the past was that he not only felt his own breathing and heartbeat but also seemed to sense the breathing of McCleod on his left and the French athlete Leipwost on his right.
This strange sensation briefly distracted him, but soon, the voice of the announcer on the broadcast pulled him back from this unusual feeling.
"On your marks."
"Get set."
"Bang!"
The continuous preparation and the sound of the starting gun, mixed with the disorienting sensation of keenly perceiving the tense breathing of the surrounding athletes, made his movements slightly slower than usual...
"Not good! Cui Luoheng's reaction at the start was slightly slow!"
In the sports channel's commentary booth, Li Sen's voice became anxious. Almost simultaneously with the starting gun, the broadcast screen displayed the reaction times of each athlete.
Behind Cui Luoheng's name was a starting reaction time of 0.179 seconds, which was noticeably slower than his usual reaction times. It was clear that his start this time was not successful.
When they saw this starting reaction time, all the domestic viewers felt a sudden shock. The starting reaction time in the 110-meter hurdles has a much greater impact on the athletes than in the 400 meters. Cui Luoheng's starting reaction time had dropped from around 0.130 seconds to 0.179 seconds, a significant difference that could potentially knock him out of the top five, let alone securing a spot in the finals.
This was clearly a visible mistake. Every athlete is bound to make mistakes at some point, but why did it have to happen now? How could it happen now?
The viewers in front of their televisions were finding it hard to accept this reality.
In this situation, did Cui Luoheng still have a chance to qualify for the finals?
Cui Luoheng on the track was well aware of his poor start. McCleod and Leipwost had reacted faster than him at the start, and he could even sense that, in lanes seven and three farther away from him, Jamaica's Costaman and Italy's Bilarelli were slightly faster than him.
Because of the slight delay in his starting reaction, Cui Luoheng found himself in a clearly disadvantaged position in the initial phase of the hurdles. Among the eight athletes on the track, he surprisingly fell to sixth place!
This was even worse than the final result achieved by Lu Mengfan earlier!
However, this situation quickly improved. Among the eight athletes on the track, only Cui Luoheng, McCleod, and Bilarelli used seven-step approaches before the hurdles.
After the explosive push-off from the start, Cui Luoheng seemed to regain his rhythm. His first three strides during the start were powerful, with a strong force propelling his body forward rapidly. After the quick start and a rapid elevation of his body, he shifted his center of gravity forward, maintaining a posture resembling a dive.
If the camera's lens could capture his perspective at this moment, it would reveal that as Cui Luoheng charged forward towards the hurdles, there was no sense of hopelessness in his eyes due to the initial start mishap.
Compared to an eight-step approach, a seven-step approach provided a more favorable body posture for athletes to transition smoothly between the start and the first hurdle. Although Cui Luoheng was not in the lead group during his first hurdle due to the initial mistake, it became apparent that he hadn't been left far behind after the quick approach to the hurdle.
This was a normal situation, as the performance at the first hurdle didn't determine the athlete's final result.
The audience, who had initially felt anxious due to Cui Luoheng's starting mistake, hadn't experienced this unease for long. They quickly became absorbed in the unfolding race on their screens.
Cui Luoheng was still not the front-runner on the track, but it seemed like he had moved up a position from sixth?
The live broadcast camera switched quickly and sporadically, making it challenging for the viewers to judge Cui Luoheng's current performance from the screen. Moreover, in the early stages of the race, the athletes' speeds hadn't yet spread out significantly. Non-professional viewers could only rely on the commentary to learn about the current performance of the athlete they were concerned about. It was difficult to perceive the changes in the athletes' positions directly from the on-screen visuals.
In fact, even in the sports channel's broadcast studio, Shao Minyi was finding it challenging to immediately assess Cui Luoheng's performance. Cui Luoheng had moved up from his initial sixth position, and he was now entangled with two other athletes in the front three hurdles. These three were temporarily the second group on the track, and their positions were changing frequently, making it impossible for Shao Minyi to provide clear and direct commentary in such a short time.
Meanwhile, the first group on the track was composed of McCleod, Leipwost, and Costaman.
In the previous round of preliminaries, Costaman had managed to advance as the last-place finisher in the first group, relying on some luck. However, in today's semifinals, his performance was impressive. Not only did he have an excellent start reaction, but he also executed the hurdle technique smoothly and steadily in the first three hurdles, trailing closely behind McCleod and competing on par with Leipwost.
Seeing the situation unfolding before him, Shao Minyi's heart stirred, "There's still a chance!"
Almost as he uttered those words, on the track, Cui Luoheng, who had seemed to be entangled with the other two athletes, had already pulled away from them during the attack of the next hurdle with a stable and smooth rhythm in his steps, leaving them behind in the blink of an eye.
Fourth place!
As he cleared the fifth hurdle, Cui Luoheng confidently secured the fourth position. From a starting mistake that placed him sixth, to now holding fourth place past the halfway point of the hurdles, the audience, who had initially lost hope, began to rally!
He was in fourth place now. The only athletes ahead of Cui Luoheng were Costaman and Leipwost.
Step, step, step...
On the track, Cui Luoheng's excitement was gradually reaching its peak. He could clearly feel that he had firmly taken control of his rhythm. Even though he could sense the hurdle rhythm of other athletes around him, there was always a mental barrier in his mind, telling him, "Your current rhythm is perfect!"
Step, step, step. The rhythm of his strides between each hurdle was almost like a beautiful melody. His body's center of gravity was slightly forward, and each time he cleared a hurdle, he could lower his center of gravity to its fullest. With the thousands of hours of training he had undertaken, his skills allowed him to complete a perfect hurdle with the lowest clearance height and the most efficient speed.
"Brilliant! This is a flawless hurdling posture!"
In Doha's stadium, the commentator also praised, "Such exquisite technique, it's been a long time since we've seen an athlete with such refined hurdling skills."
If Cui Luoheng were to hear this praise, he could confidently tell the commentator that he had completely let go of his perception. It seemed that even his sensitivity to the distance between himself and the hurdles had increased, allowing his already excellent hurdling technique to reach new heights.
From the fifth hurdle onward, Cui Luoheng's speed seemed to have been given a boost, as if someone had pushed the accelerator. In fact, he excelled at accelerating in the latter part of the hurdles, and when combined with his unleashed state, it was as if Cui Luoheng had grown wings on the track, launching into a fierce chase!
The sixth hurdle, the seventh hurdle, Cui Luoheng rapidly closed in on Costaman and Leipwost. By the eighth hurdle, the precarious advantage that Costaman and Leipwost had maintained was directly overtaken in an instant!
"Second!!!!"
In the sports channel's online live broadcast room, Shao Min shouted at the top of his lungs, "Second! Hold on!!!!"
"Come on, Cui Luoheng!"
Following Shao Min's shout, the viewers in front of their TVs also seemed to snap out of it, cheering loudly.
Go, go!
You must maintain this advantage!!!
Everyone watched Cui Luoheng on the track, so nervous that they didn't even notice their nails digging into their flesh.
The ninth hurdle...
The tenth hurdle!!!
Cui Luoheng had secured his second-place position and even launched a sprint towards McLeod in the final stretch!
As they both crossed the tenth hurdle, their speeds were neck and neck, making it hard to determine who was in the lead. In the final sprint to the finish line, their speeds remained virtually the same... and they both crossed the finish line at the same time!
Success...!
The viewers in front of their TVs and Shao Min in the broadcast room shouted with excitement!
Success!
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