IBABS Chapter 55

Ding. Refreshing World Championships individual event settlement.

1. Entering Men’s 100m¹ World Championships semifinals – Achievement completed, reward being calculated
2. Entering Men’s 100m World Championships finals – Achievement completed, reward being calculated
3. Finishing top three in Men’s 100m World Championships finals – Not achieved, no reward
4. Obtaining Tokyo Olympics Men’s 100m qualification – Achievement completed, reward being calculated
5. Breaking record of Asian athlete ranking in World Championships Men’s 100m – Achievement completed, reward being calculated

Rewards:
Perfect Idol Training Space – Training hours *105
Roulette spin chances *1
Free attribute points *3

When Su Zhe left the field, the familiar mechanical voice suddenly rang out. He finally understood why this sand sculpture system did not appear after yesterday’s preliminaries.

Judging from the number of rewards, they could be considered quite generous. Not only did he receive the training hours package he needed most, but also the long-absent roulette spin and free attribute points.

However, after a quick glance, Su Zhe temporarily ignored these rewards. During the competition period, apart from the training hours, they didn’t have any special significance. Even if the attribute points increased in real-time, he lacked sufficient training time to integrate them. Only during the training phase, combined with adequate training hours and daily training plans, could his abilities truly improve.

While Su Zhe returned to the Athletes Village to rest with his teammates, sports enthusiasts back home unleashed another round of celebration. Even at 3 AM, nothing could dampen their excitement.

The Track and Field Administration Center immediately released relevant information: [#Country D World Athletics Championships# Congratulations to Chinese men’s 100m sprinter Su Zhe for breaking through once again at this World Athletics Championship! In the men’s 100m final, Su Zhe ran an excellent time of 10.02 seconds, finishing fifth in the final, setting a new best ranking for Asian athletes in the World Championships men’s 100m event, while also breaking his personal best in the final!]

Early the next morning, the sports channel published photos and articles submitted by Xu Zhi, as well as Su Zhe’s interview video on the news website. Meanwhile, various sports media outlets and commentators pushed news and commentaries related to the 100m event at this World Championships.

However, among all the news, what truly went viral was a Japanese news piece translated by “Philosopher” fan girls studying abroad – a sports article posted on the official website of a newspaper under the Fuji Group, accompanied by a real-time news interview.

It must be said that the Japanese newspaper photographer who took pictures of Su Zhe seemed to have put his lifelong skills into capturing Su Zhe after the race: his relaxed smile after the competition, the gesture of pushing his hair back with one hand, the glistening sweat on his forehead, his perfectly proportioned physique, and skin so fair it seemed translucent…

Under the high-definition lens, Su Zhe completely withstood the scrutiny, even creating an illusion that made people afraid to stare directly.

[Although I knew our Zhe-shao started as an idol artist, this set of photos still shocked me…]

[(Sighs while lighting a cigarette) Brother above, I won’t lie to you, I was also silent for a minute just now. Now I’m a bit worried the entertainment industry will try to steal him from us…]

[…My wife just walked past me and screamed at Zhe-shao’s photos. Previously, when I went to watch competitions, she refused to go no matter how I coaxed her. Just now she told me that next time there’s a competition with Zhe-shao, she definitely wants me to take her to see it live. My feelings are very complicated right now…]

[My wife too…]

[Tsk, big brothers above, you guys actually still have wives? I’m jealous… Just now it was my sister shaking my shoulder, telling me to take her along next time to watch the competition.]

While the straight male fans stared blankly at Su Zhe’s photos with tears in their eyes, the comments section had already been occupied by “Philosophers” and entertainment circle melon-eaters who had been following Su Zhe’s news recently.

[Ahhhhh, awsl²!!! QAQ Baby, how can you be so amazing… Give the photographer 10 chicken legs³!! If that’s not enough, I’ll buy more… Photographer master, I love you!!!]

[Wuwuwu, Baby is an angel!!! It’s been so long since I’ve seen such stunning photos of Baby. The entertainment circle misled my Baby, but the sports circle’s resources are the real deal!!]

[Here it is!! I jumped up from bed like a carp! This level of beauty is too incredible… Recently I’ve been so focused on Baby’s career that I almost forgot I was originally just a simple, pure fan of his looks…]

While most people’s attention was on admiring his appearance, another small group of people filled the comments section with “hahaha,” creating a new style.

[Hahahaha!! Track Fairy! Beautiful snow leopard youth!! These rainbow farts woke me up!]

It was these responses that drew more passersby’s attention to the text content. Suddenly, in the forwarded comments, appearance fans, straight male fans, and laughing passersby each claimed their own territory.

As this wave of news hit, the “Chasing the Light” production team seized the opportunity to release a second trailer called “Light of Glory,” editing scenes from the drama showing Xie Wei and Lu Ming competing on the field and Lu Ming being the center of attention into a roughly 40-second clip.

Topics like #Lu Ming Su Zhe Olympic Qualification# were directly pushed to trending by the production team’s publicity.

It could be said that ever since Su Zhe blazed his trail on the field, covered in glory, the most excited were the entire “Chasing the Light” production team. They had originally thought the drama’s traffic would mainly rely on Shao Xingchen, but unexpectedly, during the promotional phase, besides Shao Xingchen, Su Zhe also created one topic after another for them.

Country D, October 4th, 10 AM

On competition day, there were naturally no training tasks for the athletes. When Su Zhe and the others met with Lü Fei, it was mostly for Lü Fei to point out their common issues and remind them about their competition mindset.

Among Zhou Tianjue, Ye Jun, and Su Zhe, the one with the least competition experience was Su Zhe. Yet on today’s World Championships field, he was also the most experienced person.

After competing in the 100m event over the past two days, Su Zhe had developed a certain familiarity with this massive stadium with its pink track, and had already experienced the pressure of competing against world-class opponents.

For today’s 110m hurdles preliminary, his state could be described as relatively relaxed.

The only issue might be that running twice yesterday had consumed quite a bit of his energy, but with the enhancement of his deep sleep skill, his physical strength had recovered to about 70-80%.

Although Zhou Tianjue and Ye Jun appeared relatively relaxed at the moment, Lü Fei saw through their true state with one remark.

“Come on, the competition hasn’t even started yet, why pretend to be relaxed?”

Lü Fei’s words made Ye Jun reveal a bitter smile, while Zhou Tianjue beside him pursed his lips and turned his head, pretending nothing had happened.

In fact, although they had successfully secured spots in the 110m hurdles, if they considered the past qualifying times for the semifinals, the one with the greatest chance of advancing was Su Zhe, who had steadily improved his time to around 13.31 seconds during previous training.

During the training camp, Lü Fei had once evaluated that Su Zhe’s talent in the 110m hurdles might be even stronger than in the 100m sprint, but his height could potentially limit his highest achievements in the 110m hurdles.

Ye Jun’s personal best so far was 13.37 seconds. During training camp, his best state allowed him to run under 13.34 seconds, but his usual results hovered around 13.40 seconds. This time made it difficult to guarantee his advancement to the semifinals. He could only hope that if he didn’t encounter strong opponents in the group stage, he might have a chance to qualify through overall ranking.
The desire to enter the semifinals made Ye Jun feel slightly nervous, but this tension remained under control. As an experienced veteran, he could completely transform these nervous feelings into motivation on the field.

Zhou Tianjue’s state was the most unclear among the three.

He had only been competing in the adult division for about a year, and being able to improve his personal best to meet the previous World Championships qualification standard was already quite remarkable.

During the pre-competition closed training period, he once performed exceptionally well, achieving a peak time of 13.29 seconds, breaking the 13.30 barrier.

At that time, everyone including Lü Fei thought the electronic timer had malfunctioned. This result was 0.15 seconds better than his previous personal best of 13.44 seconds. This improvement was so significant it could only be described as incredible.

But the probability of such miracles was too low. In subsequent training, Zhou Tianjue couldn’t find the state that had allowed him to run 13.29 seconds, and he even struggled to break the 13.40 barrier.

If he hadn’t run another 13.28 seconds at the end of training camp, everyone would have thought the initial 13.29 was due to timer malfunction.

However, it was precisely because the gap between his occasional outstanding performances and regular training results was so large that Zhou Tianjue developed anxiety during the training phase and even during the few test runs after arriving in Country D.

Under what circumstances could he run under the 13.30 barrier?

This question was a first not only for Zhou Tianjue himself but also for Lü Fei. After multiple data analyses and discussions with the coaching and data teams, the final conclusion was that during the two times he broke the 13.30 barrier, Zhou Tianjue’s speed from the first hurdle to the sixth hurdle continuously increased. At the sixth hurdle, his maximum hurdle-clearing speed reached 9.30 meters/second, after which the data gradually decreased but at a gentler rate, maintaining his speed relatively well.

In regular training, Zhou Tianjue’s maximum hurdle-clearing speed usually appeared at the fifth hurdle, after which his speed began to decline. His ability to maintain maximum speed was insufficient, and the highest hurdle-clearing speed he reached was lower than during his peak state, making it difficult for him to break through his usual results.

This peak performance, it could be said, was the theoretical range Zhou Tianjue could achieve in his state that day. But with limited time remaining in training camp, Lü Fei couldn’t forcibly adjust his hurdle-running habits based on this conclusion, since it might cause an even greater impact on him.

Under these circumstances, achieving his peak performance could only depend on luck.

This conclusion made Zhou Tianjue’s mindset somewhat unstable, making him the most tense among the three.

Lü Fei patted his shoulder and comforted him. “It’s fine, just perform at your usual level. We didn’t come with any specific tasks this time. Being able to secure three World Championships spots is already enough for us this year. Don’t rush. The data team and I already understand your speed situation. After the World Championships, there will be plenty of time to make adjustments.”

For Lü Fei, Zhou Tianjue was like his own child, but this situation was really special, and he found it difficult to help Zhou Tianjue relax further.

Su Zhe and Ye Jun both patted Zhou Tianjue’s shoulder, hoping their comrade could relax and not let excessive tension throw him off balance, preventing him from performing at his usual level.

After comforting Zhou Tianjue, Lü Fei said to the three, “There are plenty of semifinal spots this time. As long as you finish in the top four in your preliminary heats, you’ll qualify. This is quite achievable with your usual performances. Just maintain your composure and run like you normally do.”

Lü Fei was right.

Unlike the men’s 100m sprint, the World Championships 110m hurdles had only 40 participants. From a numbers perspective, anyone ranking in the top 24 could enter the semifinals, which was a very generous cutoff. As long as they didn’t underperform, all three had a good chance of advancing to the semifinals together, setting a new record for the most Chinese athletes in the World Championships 110m hurdles semifinals.

At 1:10 PM local time in Country D,

The 110m hurdles preliminaries were set to begin in five minutes.

Su Zhe, Ye Jun, and Zhou Tianjue had already completed their pre-race check-in and were now waiting in the holding area. None of them had been assigned to the same group for today’s preliminaries.

Su Zhe would compete in the first heat, Ye Jun was scheduled for the third heat, and Zhou Tianjue would compete last in the fifth heat.

After the morning conversation with Lü Fei and being comforted by his teammates, Zhou Tianjue had managed to somewhat conceal his anxiety. But now, with the competition about to begin, the anxiety and irritation on his face were clearly visible.

Su Zhe looked back at Zhou Tianjue. He wanted to comfort him again, but the staff were already inviting the first group to the field. Su Zhe could only wave to Ye Jun and Zhou Tianjue before heading to the track alone.

Stepping onto the field of the Celion Sports Complex once more, the pink track had become somewhat familiar and comforting to Su Zhe.

Standing in his assigned lane four, Su Zhe easily adjusted his starting blocks while patting his leg muscles to release tension and get into a better competitive state.

Beside him, athletes in other lanes glanced at him with curiosity – after all, seeing a fair-skinned, slender athlete only about 180cm tall among a group of men over 190cm tall was something they had never experienced before.

However, the other athletes were only curious briefly before quickly returning their attention to their pre-race preparations. Soon, all athletes had completed their preparations.

Over the loudspeaker, the referee’s voice officially announced:

“On your marks.”

The competitors positioned their feet on the starting blocks, hands on the ground, ready for the start.

“Set!”

“Bang!”

With the sound of the gun, all athletes launched forward, beginning their assault on the pre-hurdle phase!

Su Zhe maintained his excellent reaction time today, with just 0.139 seconds placing him third among all competitors.

The power exploding from his legs quickly propelled him forward. Although his height put him at a disadvantage in stride length compared to others taking the same number of steps, Su Zhe’s stride frequency was relatively superior to the surrounding competitors. These factors balanced each other out, and combined with his advantage in reaction time, allowed Su Zhe to secure a solid position in the top three during the acceleration phase before the first hurdle.

As he approached the hurdle, after adjustments made during the training period, Su Zhe no longer subconsciously hesitated or slowed down. His right foot pushed against the ground, the explosive force propelling him upward. His left leg, serving as the lead leg, quickly lifted to clear the hurdle while his body leaned slightly forward, driving him ahead. His right leg followed swiftly, completing a clean and efficient hurdling motion.

During training, Su Zhe had completely mastered the technique of gripping the track with just the ball of his foot. When his lead leg landed, the ball of his foot touched down first, quickly leveraging his powerful limb control and stability to grip the track and propel his body forward to continue racing.

Maintaining a steady three-step rhythm between hurdles, he immediately cleared the next hurdle!

Thanks to his stability and smooth rhythm between hurdles, Su Zhe’s speed gradually increased from the moment he cleared the first hurdle.

Unlike Zhou Tianjue, whose best performance was in the first five hurdles, the initial three hurdles weren’t Su Zhe’s peak racing segment. In the first three hurdles, he was merely adjusting himself to enter a more coordinated rhythm between obstacles.

From the fourth hurdle onward, Su Zhe’s speed gradually reached its peak. He typically achieved his maximum hurdling speed at the seventh hurdle and was able to maintain this top speed to a significant degree.

According to Lü Fei’s analysis, Su Zhe’s height remained the limiting factor in his 110m hurdle speed. He was relying on his extraordinary talent for hurdling rhythm to ensure victory over competitors whose inter-hurdle abilities were far inferior to his.

Therefore, Su Zhe’s speed improvement depended more on whether he could increase his stride frequency, and whether he could maximize his acceleration ability in the final sprint segment to boost his finishing speed as much as possible.

During training, Lü Fei had suggested changing Su Zhe’s pre-hurdle steps from eight to seven, which would greatly improve his speed before the first hurdle and likely enhance his overall performance. However, such a technical change wasn’t minor and required sufficient time for adjustment and training, so Lü Fei ultimately postponed this plan, intending to discuss the technical adjustments again during winter training.

At this moment on the track, there were no world-famous 110m hurdlers. In this group, Su Zhe was able to dominate the surrounding competitors simply with his natural talent for inter-hurdle rhythm and basic speed.

Under the astonished gazes of competitors in the other lanes, Su Zhe gradually overtook the two athletes in front of him starting from the fourth hurdle.

With each hurdle he cleared, he seemed to get faster. The two runners who had been ahead of him attempted to surge ahead again after noticing Su Zhe catching up, but their own rhythm was affected by Su Zhe’s hurdle speed and showed a hint of disorder.

By the time they forcibly stabilized their inter-hurdle rhythm through sheer skill, Su Zhe had already moved to the front and was about to clear the tenth hurdle.

Behind Su Zhe, the athlete who had been in first place hit the ninth hurdle, knocking it over and severely disrupting his rhythm. He was quickly overtaken by the competitor who had been in second place, and even the athlete who had originally been in fourth place seized this opportunity to move ahead.

After clearing the 10 hurdles, Su Zhe faced a clear path ahead. The power he had accumulated during the first half of the race manifested as an unstoppable momentum in the final sprint.

He had opened up a full meter gap between himself and the second-place competitor. Even at the finish line, Su Zhe didn’t exert his full effort, instead crossing the line with apparent ease.

In the commentary booth, the duo of Chris and Bills once again let out exclamations of amazement.

“Oh! What am I seeing? It’s that Chinese angel boy again! China Su!” Chris shook his head in admiration. “China’s Su, the gap between him and the second-place runner is visibly large, and he even looked so relaxed during the final sprint… Incredible, this is a young man with astonishing talent in both 110m hurdles and 100m sprint!”

“Yes,” Bills also exclaimed. “His 100m speed has already reached 10.02 seconds, with a chance to break the 10-second barrier at any time. So might his 110m hurdles performance have a chance to break the 13-second barrier? That’s a beautiful possibility that easily creates anticipation!”

After a brief wait, the judges sent the results of the first heat to the commentary booth.

“Alright, let’s take a look at the angel boy’s preliminary 110m hurdles results!” Chris announced, looking at the data in his hand. “110m hurdles preliminary first heat, first place, Su Zhe (China): 13.28 seconds (0.8), second place, Wilkin (Hungary): 13.33 seconds (0.8)…”

The moment the results were announced, in the Chinese competitors’ area, Lü Fei showed a relaxed smile, while Zheng Wensheng’s face was overcome with joy.

“Su Zhe’s result!!! First in his heat, 13.28… Has he secured another Olympic qualification?!” Zheng Wensheng looked at the composed Lü Fei, momentarily wondering if his own wild excitement might be excessive.

But this was another Olympic qualifying standard achieved!

“Lao Lü, you’re not being fair. You kept saying we needed to wait, but Su Zhe’s performance was clearly this good all along?”

Hearing Zheng Wensheng’s question, Lü Fei shook his head. “Su Zhe’s talent for 110m hurdles is undeniable, but before the competition, I wasn’t sure how much of his ability he could demonstrate in such a major event.”

What he didn’t expect was that Su Zhe would thrive under pressure – whether in the previous 100m sprint or today’s 110m hurdles, his personal results kept improving.

Like in today’s 110m hurdles preliminary, he easily secured his spot in the semifinals with a personal best of 13.28 seconds, simultaneously surpassing the Olympic qualification standard for the 110m hurdles.

For Lü Fei, this brought a sense of relief.

In fact, as a country that once had a 110m hurdles ace like Song Chen, the Track and Field Administration Center naturally had expectations about whether any hurdlers could advance to the semifinals. However, Lü Fei had personally contained these expectations, not passing the related pressure down to Su Zhe and the other two athletes.

Now, with Su Zhe achieving this result, it was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, allowing him to relax somewhat.

Zheng Wensheng watched as the second group of competitors entered the track, then turned his gaze back to Lü Fei, unable to resist rubbing his hands as he asked, “Lao Lü, do you think Zhou Tianjue and Ye Jun, those two, can make it to the finals?”

Hearing this question, a hint of concern appeared on Lü Fei’s face. “We don’t know yet, let’s keep watching…”