Chapter 3

At the finish line, the examiner in charge of timing held up the stopwatch and said, "First lane, 11.45 seconds!"

"Second lane, 11.30 seconds," another examiner said.

"Third lane, 11.48 seconds," the last examiner said.

Zhang Guan let out a deep breath, his eyes filled with excitement. He was in the middle lane, which meant the 11.30 seconds was his result. According to the national athlete selection standards, the qualifying time for a second-level national athlete in men's 100 meters is 11.50 seconds by hand timing or 11.74 seconds by electronic timing. With his hand-timed 11.30 seconds, he had already met the standard for a second-level national athlete.

Zhang Guan knew he didn't have any outstanding talent in sports. According to the original schedule, he would only reach the level of a second-level national athlete a year later. In fact, most people could reach this standard through training. However, he managed to run 11.30 seconds despite a slow start, which must be due to the so-called "system" in his mind. Especially when the system said the effect was over, Zhang Guan clearly felt his speed drop, confirming this point.

"Newbie task: Use a skill once to complete, unlock time display." As the system's voice sounded, a multifunctional stopwatch-like object appeared in Zhang Guan's mind.

Immediately, a prompt popped up: "Time display can accurately show the time spent on movement, remaining time, round time, etc., with the specific display type changing according to the type of movement."

"What is this thing?" Zhang Guan was taken aback, carefully reading the prompt and confirming that it was probably a timing function.

...

In the distance, Coach Zhou of the provincial track and field team looked at Zhang Guan at the finish line, frowning.

Coach Zhou only turned around after the old man pointed to Zhang Guan, by which time the three candidates on the track had already started running. So Coach Zhou didn't see the start, but he did see Zhang Guan accelerate and overtake the other two candidates.

"This kid is so fast! He seems to be at the level of a professional athlete. Hmm? 11.30 seconds? How is that possible? Based on the speed he overtook the other two, he shouldn't be that slow!" Coach Zhou commented.

"It's not 11.30 seconds, it should be 10.30 seconds," the old man suddenly said. "He was distracted at the start and lost a second."

Coach Zhou asked in surprise, "Teacher, are you saying he ran 11.30 seconds after a slow start? His real speed can reach 10.30 seconds?"

"Yes, even with an error, it won't exceed 0.1 seconds," the old man said firmly.

"This is impossible. Hand timing is 0.24 seconds slower than electronic timing. A hand-timed 10.30 seconds is equivalent to an electronic-timed 10.54 seconds, which is already close to the level of a national-level athlete. How could a national-level athlete appear in a second-level athlete test? He looks like a high school student, and even a high school student who is a first-level national athlete is considered to have good talent, but I have no memory of him at all," Coach Zhou said.

As the head coach of the provincial track and field team, selecting young athletes was naturally part of his job. Therefore, he was familiar with the promising talents in the region. However, Zhang Guan was clearly a stranger to him.

The qualifying time for a first-level national athlete in the men's 100 meters is 10.93 seconds by electronic timing. Unlike the second-level athlete test, first-level and higher-level athletes must achieve their qualifying times in official competitions to be recognized. At the current national average level, some of the better athletes in sports schools or high school students who specialize in sports can reach this standard.

However, after reaching the level of a first-level national athlete, every 0.1-second improvement is extremely difficult. In the men's 100 meters, the qualifying time for a national-level athlete, which is higher than a first-level athlete, is 10.50 seconds. The 0.43-second difference between a first-level national athlete and a national-level athlete is a gap that many athletes find hard to bridge.

The level of short-distance running in Asia has always been at the bottom of the world, and China's short-distance running level is considered to be in the upper-middle range in Asia. In other sports, there might be high school students who are national-level athletes, but in track and field short-distance running, no one under 18 has ever reached the level of a national-level athlete. This is why Coach Zhou refused to believe Zhang Guan's performance.

"Little Zhou, maybe our team has really found a gem this time," the old man said, walking forward. "Go and check this kid's information, I need him to run again!"

...

Zhang Guan stood at the starting line again, feeling the atmosphere around him was somewhat strange.

The other candidates had already left, and even the examiner who was timing at the finish line had been replaced by an old man and a middle-aged man.

Recalling what had just happened, Zhang Guan felt increasingly uneasy.

The chief examiner had called him aside and asked him to run again. Zhang Guan asked if his previous 11.30 seconds was still valid, and the chief examiner told him that the 11.30 seconds he ran earlier was still valid, and he just needed to wait for the second-level athlete qualification certificate. This made Zhang Guan even more confused. If the result was valid, why did he need to run again?

More importantly, the chief examiner encouraged him to run well and even told him that if he ran well, he might be admitted to university without an exam.

Outstanding athletes can be admitted to university without exams, and Zhang Guan knew this, but he had never heard that a good performance in a second-level athlete test could also lead to a guaranteed university admission.

In a state of confusion, Zhang Guan stood on the track.

In his mind, the green icon was still floating there, but the gray had disappeared, and it could be used again.

"Get ready, set..." The starter raised the starting pistol, and this time Zhang Guan did not get distracted. As the gun went off, Zhang Guan immediately dashed out, and at the same moment, he activated the "Sprint" skill again.

Zhang Guan took off, once again feeling his body become light and his legs full of strength.

At the same time, the time bar that had just appeared in the interface started moving, with a precise millisecond timer constantly jumping, indicating the time Zhang Guan was spending on this 100 meters.

In the distance, the athletes waiting to enter the training area all focused their attention on him, and several sprinters even moved to the front row to watch.

"This kid is so fast! I feel like he's faster than me," a 400-meter athlete said.

"How is that possible?" Another person paused, then continued, "He's an amateur. Look at the angle he took off at the start, it's completely wrong, and his pace rhythm is also off. You're a 400-meter athlete, but you shouldn't even be beaten by an amateur 100-meter runner..."

As he spoke, his voice grew quieter, clearly feeling some unease. They were all professional athletes, and their sensitivity to speed and the passage of time was extremely high. Years of training had given them the ability to calculate time, and even without an electronic timer, they could estimate the time with minimal error based on their feelings.

...

The 10 seconds of the Sprint skill were not enough to support Zhang Guan through the entire 100 meters. In the final stretch, Zhang Guan could only rely on his own explosive power and momentum to cross the finish line. Without the support of the Sprint skill, the obvious slowdown in his speed was visible to the naked eye.

The old man and Coach Zhou each held a stopwatch. The moment Zhang Guan crossed the finish line, they both stopped their stopwatches. But after seeing the time on their stopwatches, they immediately looked at each other's stopwatches.

"Sure enough, no mistake!"

"The stopwatch is fine!"

They said simultaneously.

At that moment, both stopwatches showed the same time: 10.38 seconds.

When they first saw this time, neither of them believed it, so they looked at each other's stopwatches without hesitation. But when they saw the same number, they accepted the reality.

Looking at the stopwatch in his hand, Coach Zhou suppressed his excitement and said, "This is his second run. If we calculate based on the level of a professional athlete, running twice in such a short time will inevitably lead to a drop in performance. This means his first run was really 10.30 seconds! This means he really has the level of a national-level athlete! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes and measured it myself, I wouldn't have believed it."

The old man nodded, "His limit is definitely not here. His explosive power and speed are both excellent, but from his start and pace rhythm, he's clearly a recent amateur. I estimate he's only been learning sprinting for a month or so. In the final stage, his speed clearly slowed down, and his pace rhythm became chaotic, clearly due to fatigue. Young people have less stamina than adults, and beginners don't know how to allocate their energy, which is normal. But even so, he can achieve this result, not only is he a good seed, but he has a bright future!"

The old man turned to Coach Zhou and said, "He's a genius, a genius we've never encountered before! No matter what, we have to get him into our track and field team!"

Coach Zhou nodded vigorously, "Teacher, you can rest assured. The students who come to take the second-level athlete test are all for university admission. We have a guaranteed admission to the provincial sports university, which is at least a first-tier university. And most athletes don't have good academic performance, so this guaranteed admission to a first-tier university should be very appealing to him."

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