Chapter 7

"Really? Break a national record once!" Zhang Guan was taken aback by this task. Once, Zhang Guan's best level was only that of a second-class national athlete, and a national record seemed so distant to him, like an unscalable peak.

"What kind of broken system is this? This task is impossible to complete! How could a national record be so easy to break? If I could break a national record, why would I still be here? I can only run 10.38 seconds now. What is the current national record... right, what is the current national record?"

Zhang Guan suddenly remembered that the national record at this time was not particularly fast, and it was over 10.10 seconds.

"What was it, 10.10 something?" Zhang Guan recalled carefully, only remembering that Su Feiren had run 9.99 seconds, but he couldn't remember the current 100-meter record.

While thinking, Zhang Guan walked off the track and approached Coach Chen.

"Coach Chen, I've advanced." Zhang Guan jogged up to Coach Chen.

"You were far behind the second place in the preliminaries. You don't need to push so hard in the preliminaries; just ensure you advance. You don't need to go all out, as there's still the semifinal later. You need to conserve some energy," Coach Chen said.

"I understand," Zhang Guan replied.

Coach Chen pulled Zhang Guan closer and introduced him to the coach standing beside him, "This is Coach Yu, the coach of the national track and field team."

"Hello, Coach Yu!" Zhang Guan greeted him immediately. He had already noticed Coach Yu, as a bald head was quite noticeable, and Coach Yu was wearing a tracksuit. Zhang Guan naturally assumed he was a coach, but he didn't expect him to be the national team coach.

"Old Chen has a keen eye. He's found another good seedling." Thinking this, Coach Yu patted Zhang Guan's shoulder and said, "Young man, I'll remember you. Run well in the next race. As long as your performance doesn't drop, if there's a national team training session in the future, I'll definitely include you!"

...

After seeing Coach Yu leave, Zhang Guan asked, "Coach Chen, what is the current 100-meter national record?"

"10.17 seconds. Zhou Wei set it at the National Track and Field Grand Prix in 1998." Coach Chen turned to look at Zhang Guan and asked, "Why are you asking this?"

"Nothing. Just to see how much I'm short." Zhang Guan thought to himself, "I remember now, the current national record is Zhou Wei's 10.17 seconds. I'm only 0.21 seconds away. It doesn't seem that hard. The sprint skill just upgraded, and both the effect and duration have improved. Maybe I can reach this level."

Coach Chen chuckled and said, "Don't always look for higher mountains. To be honest, your current performance meets my expectations. If you keep running like this, with a bit of luck, you might win a medal. As for the national record, work hard, and you'll have a chance."

When Coach Chen mentioned the 100-meter record, he seemed a bit regretful. This national record had stood for five years without being broken. In Zhang Guan's memory, this record lasted for thirteen years until it was broken by Su Feiren at the 2011 National Track and Field Championships.

Since 2004, with the retirement of the excellent athletes who emerged at the end of the 1990s, the domestic 100-meter sprinting project fell into a low ebb, and from 2004 to 2010, no athlete in the country had run under 10.20 seconds in a competition.

...

The 100-meter race progressed quickly, and the eighteen heats were completed in a flash. The coaches of each team quickly received the list of qualifiers and the next groupings. At the same time, Zhang Guan's name spread rapidly.

A time of 10.38 seconds, if it had been last year, would have been the fourth-fastest time in the country. This year, the domestic athletes generally performed well, and this time currently ranked fifth for the year. The sudden appearance of someone who could run this fast naturally caught the attention of the coaches of each team.

In the domestic athlete training system, athletes receive training from a young age. County sports teams select good seedlings from schools, and those who perform well in county teams are selected by city teams, and those who perform well in city teams are selected by provincial teams. There are even various sports schools in between. In this multi-layered selection system, excellent athletes are well-known. At the provincial team level, everyone knows each other well. Which team's athletes are in good form, and which team has excellent talent in reserve, are not secrets. Even so-called "dark horses" in competitions are athletes already known to everyone, just not noticed before.

But today, Zhang Guan clearly broke this tradition. His 10.38-second time in the preliminaries made his name spread quickly. At this point, the coaches of each team realized they knew nothing about this athlete, so they began to inquire everywhere, hoping to learn about Zhang Guan's background.

When everyone learned that Zhang Guan was a disciple personally selected by Coach Chen, they all seemed to find it reasonable. Coach Chen was a venerable figure in the track and field world, and it was natural for his personally selected disciple to be so excellent.

The semifinals would soon begin. There would be five heats, with the top three from each group and the best fourth-place finisher from the five groups advancing to the semifinals, a total of sixteen athletes, and the competition would still be very intense.

...

Chen Wenzhong was the sprint coach of the Guangxi provincial track and field team. In his youth, he was a famous sprinter in the country, having broken the national record five times, including the 100-meter record in 1996 with a time of 10.20 seconds. After retiring last year, he stayed with his home team and became a coach.

At this moment, Chen Wenzhong was holding the list of qualifiers and the groupings, studying them carefully.

"The fastest time in the preliminaries was 10.38 seconds? Who ran so hard, not knowing there are two races in the morning? His name is Zhang Guan? Where did he come from? I've never heard of him." Chen Wenzhong frowned in thought.

A 10.38-second time, in the eyes of a coach at Chen Wenzhong's level, could make one the top 100-meter sprinter in some provincial teams and a key player in the strongest sprinting provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.

When Coach Chen Wenzhong opened the semifinal groupings, he was surprised to find that Zhang Guan was in the same group as his team's main player, Pang GuiBin.

Pang GuiBin was one of the heroes who won the 4x100-meter national championship for the provincial team at the Ninth National Games. This athlete performed well in training, but his best time in official competitions was 10.40 seconds, clearly slower than Zhang Guan.

Coach Chen continued to look down and found two more names in the same group: Wang Peng from the local team and Hu Kai from the mountain city.

"Wang Peng can run under 10.30 seconds, and he's a local athlete, so this grouping is definitely to ensure Wang Peng advances to the semifinals. Hu Kai was discovered by Professor Li from Tsinghua University two years ago. Although he only started sprinting at 18, his performance has improved remarkably in the past year, and his time should be around 10.40 seconds." As Coach Chen thought, he wrote down his estimated times next to the athletes' names.

"Wang Peng will definitely be first. The next two qualifying spots should go to our team's Pang GuiBin and Hu Kai from the mountain city. However, this sudden appearance of Zhang Guan is an unknown factor. If he's really that fast, one of Pang GuiBin and Hu Kai will definitely be eliminated." Coach Chen circled Zhang Guan's name and added a question mark.

After a few minutes of thought, Coach Chen called Pang GuiBin over and whispered, "Pay attention to Zhang Guan, who was first in the preliminaries. His 10.38-second time might be a coincidence, but he might have the real ability. So don't hold back and focus on advancing from the semifinals!"

At the same time, the coaches of the local team and the mountain city team were giving similar instructions to Wang Peng and Hu Kai. These coaches might not have been great athletes in the past, but they were all very smart. The sudden appearance of Zhang Guan as an unknown factor in this group of eight made the coaches more cautious in their strategy.

Coach Chen also called Zhang Guan over to give him pre-race instructions.

Coach Chen looked at the grouping list in his hand, intending to introduce Zhang Guan to the notable characteristics of the other athletes in the group, but then he thought that explaining technical features to a beginner would be useless, and even if Zhang Guan understood, it would take time to digest. So Coach Chen put down the list and said, "Run well and strive to advance!"

...

The organizers had considered the strength of the athletes when grouping them. Each of the five groups had two to three strong athletes, so there were no upsets in the semifinals, and the strong athletes all advanced to the semifinals.

Zhang Guan's group was the last to compete, and with the presence of the local star Wang Peng, there were many more spectators.

The moment Zhang Guan stood on his lane, he instantly attracted the attention of most people in and outside the stadium. Both athletes and coaches wanted to know who this athlete was who could run 10.38 seconds in the preliminaries, and even the judges couldn't help but look at Zhang Guan a few more times.

But most people looked at Zhang Guan with doubt. He looked to be only seventeen or eighteen years old and was previously unknown, so it was impossible for him to have a strong competitive level. His 10.38-second time in the preliminaries might have been a coincidence, and this semifinal would likely be the end of his competition.

On the track, Zhang Guan had a smile on his face and looked forward to the finish line with great anticipation.

"Expert-level sprint skill, the effect has greatly improved. I wonder if I can break the national record if I go all out. But this is just the semifinal, and I just need to ensure I advance, so there's no need to go all out." Zhang Guan thought to himself.

At that moment, the starting gun went off, and Zhang Guan took off immediately, but he soon found himself half a step behind!

Zhang Guan was behind at the start again...

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