IBABS Chapter 56

On the track, the competitors in the second heat of the preliminary round were also ready. Among this group, the strongest was Alcides from Spain. His performance had exploded this season, having once achieved a personal best of 13.05 seconds. His results in multiple major competitions were close to this figure, making him one of the hot favorites to win the 110m hurdles at this year’s World Championships.

When the second heat began, Alcides seemed to prioritize stability. He did not pursue an extreme reaction speed at the start, but instead launched with remarkable steadiness.

Although he didn’t have an advantage at the start, his subsequent steady rhythm allowed him to smoothly take the lead by the fifth hurdle, and he maintained this advantage all the way to the finish line.

In the end, the second heat undoubtedly concluded with Alcides advancing in first place with a time of 13.23 seconds. The fourth-place qualifier was Ogura Kazunari¹ from Japan, with a final time of 13.44 seconds.

When the third group of athletes appeared, Ye Jun also stepped onto the track. Standing in his lane, he took a deep breath, pushing down the nervous emotions in his heart.

Judging from the first two heats, as long as he could run within 13.45 seconds, there was a high probability he would advance to the semifinals. So if he performed consistently, getting to the semifinals shouldn’t be a problem.

What he really needed to worry about was Zhou Tianjue… His heat was packed with strong competitors, and securing a top-four finish wouldn’t be easy…

This thought made Ye Jun slightly anxious, but he quickly shook off the unnecessary thoughts from his mind and focused on the race he was about to face.

Ye Jun’s heat also had several strong contenders. Jamaica’s Percival had achieved a best time of 13.22 seconds this season. The American Louis had a season best of 13.17 seconds, ranking sixth globally. France’s Adolphe with his 13.28 seconds was also not to be underestimated.

Even the athletes ranked behind him this season couldn’t be taken lightly.

Thinking about this, Ye Jun shook his head, completely clearing away his chaotic thoughts, and focused entirely on the race.

In the Chinese athletes’ section of the stands, Zheng Wensheng and Lü Fei both unconsciously straightened their postures, watching the track intently.

Before this year, before Su Zhe appeared and Zhou Tianjue officially moved up to the adult group, Ye Jun had carried the hopes of China’s 110m hurdles for a long time.

In terms of natural talent for the 110m hurdles, Ye Jun couldn’t compare to Song Chen, Zhou Tianjue, or Su Zhe. Compared to former prodigies like Song Chen and rising stars like Zhou Tianjue and Su Zhe, Ye Jun’s talent in the 110m hurdles had a certain gap.

But despite this, he never counted the hardships of training or the difficulties when hitting plateaus. His tenacious will and diligence allowed his performance to breakthrough time and again.

He was an excellent example of someone who made up for his lack of natural talent with his own diligence and self-discipline.

Emotionally speaking, Zheng Wensheng favored Ye Jun a bit more. During the previous few years of competing abroad, the most relied-upon member in the 110m hurdles was Ye Jun. He had experienced the ups and downs of various competitions alongside Ye Jun.

On the track, Ye Jun and the other athletes were already crouching in their starting blocks, ready for the start. The referee’s voice sounded over the broadcast.

“On your marks!”

“Set!”

Everyone was fully focused, waiting for the sound of the starting gun—”Bang!”

At the starting line, all athletes moved at the gun’s sound, quickly exploding forward from their starting blocks!

Ye Jun’s start was very steady, with a reaction time of 0.152 seconds placing him in the middle of all competitors. To his left, a Swiss athlete made a serious mistake during the starting phase, his 0.193-second reaction instantly putting him behind everyone else.

When Ye Jun began entering the hurdle phase, he saw the Swiss athlete to his left becoming increasingly frantic, knocking over 3 hurdles in succession. His rhythm completely fell apart, and he eventually gave up the chase, gradually coming to a stop midway through the race.

The constant noise of falling hurdles from the left did cause some disturbance to Ye Jun, but with his years of rich competition experience, he calmly controlled his nervous emotions. He even forcibly quickened his pace, adjusting his usual rhythm between hurdles to quickly pass through the area that might affect him.

This ability to calmly adjust his own rhythm was something Ye Jun had accumulated through years of continuous competition. Although temporarily fine-tuning his habitual rhythm during a race might have some impact on his performance, if a nearby athlete was having frequent accidents and he couldn’t quickly escape the section where the disruptions were occurring, it could potentially affect him and completely ruin his race.

“Good!” In the Chinese athletes’ section, Lü Fei couldn’t help exclaiming when he saw Ye Jun’s handling of the situation. Ye Jun’s on-the-spot experience and ability during competitions far exceeded the still-inexperienced Su Zhe and Zhou Tianjue.

On the track, after increasing his rhythm, Ye Jun pushed his maximum hurdle speed to the limit between the second and fifth hurdles. Afterward, his speed between hurdles showed a slight decline, but he was prepared for this, working hard to stabilize his rhythm and speed as he continued to attack the final hurdles.

Ahead of him, Percival, Louis, and France’s Adolphe had firmly secured the top three positions, while to Ye Jun’s right, Cypriot athlete Andros was competing with him for fourth place in this heat.

Under Ye Jun’s steady posture, Andros clearly became a bit impatient. He attempted to increase his hurdle-attacking speed but accidentally hit the eighth hurdle. This collision disrupted his rhythm, and his speed, which had been neck-and-neck with Ye Jun’s, noticeably slowed.

Ye Jun obviously wouldn’t leave him any chance for a comeback. After steadily crossing the tenth hurdle, Ye Jun caught up to the leading group and successfully crossed the finish line in fourth place behind Percival!

“Well done!” Zheng Wensheng excitedly punched the air. “That’s the second semifinal spot secured!”

Beside him, Lü Fei also nodded with satisfaction, but from his tense expression, it was clear he still couldn’t completely relax.

A few minutes later, the official results for the third preliminary heat were announced. Ye Jun had successfully squeezed into the semifinals with a time of 13.40 seconds. Standing at the finish line, Ye Jun finally let out a sigh of relief.

Afterward, he cast a somewhat worried gaze toward the athletes’ preparation area.

In the preparation area, Zhou Tianjue was stretching his body, trying to ease his nervous emotions, but when a person is in a state of tension, such feelings are really difficult to control.

The more he tried to calm down, the more tense he became.

Zhou Tianjue took several deep breaths, wanting to relax his body, but the state of tension and anxiety still surrounded him.

This wasn’t his first world-class competition, and he shouldn’t have been troubled by such nervous and anxious emotions, but nothing in life is absolute, and he now found himself trapped in this predicament.

He clearly knew he had the ability to run 13.38 seconds, but this required betting on a probability of just a few hundredths. This feeling of his performance being completely beyond his control was unbearably difficult, making it hard for him to find his confident self on the track.

Soon, the athletes from the fourth preliminary heat had also taken the stage, and those remaining in the preparation area were just his competitors from the same group.

Among the 5 preliminary groups, his group could be called the “group of death.”

There was Lister, the American athlete ranked first this season; Gomez, the Brazilian athlete ranked eighth this season; Train, the American athlete ranked fifth this season; and Andre, the British athlete ranked thirteenth this season.

Just these four powerful competitors, who were all capable of running under 13.30 seconds, had almost locked up the 4 semifinal spots.

Besides them, among the remaining athletes, Jamaican runner Frank had also achieved a time of 13.33 seconds this season… this made the pressure facing Zhou Tianjue even greater.

At the commentary desk, Chris and Bills were admiring the battle in the fourth preliminary heat. The fourth group, which initially didn’t seem particularly competitive, had multiple athletes who performed exceptionally well.

Even the original strongest competitor in the fourth group, Brazilian athlete Elano, surprisingly failed to advance in first place.

In this group, the athlete advancing in first place was French runner Hubert, with Brazilian Elano in second. Most crucially, the fifth and sixth-place athletes in the fourth preliminary heat also posted good times of 13.40 and 13.42 seconds respectively.

Looking at the combined results from the first four groups, besides the top four athletes from each group who would directly advance to the semifinals, the next four fastest athletes had times of 13.40, 13.42, 13.43, and 13.45 seconds.

This meant that if Zhou Tianjue couldn’t finish in the top four in his preliminary heat, he would need to run faster than these 4 ranked athletes.

Such times were actually no problem for Zhou Tianjue in his daily training. As long as he could perform at his usual training level, he wouldn’t need to worry about advancing to the semifinals. But his current nervous, anxious state would inevitably affect his final performance, making his race result unpredictable.

In the Chinese athletes’ section, Lü Fei rubbed his forehead, his anxiety peaking as the fifth preliminary heat was about to begin.

Zheng Wensheng also noticed his tension, but matters on the track could only be resolved by the athletes themselves. He could only pat Lü Fei’s shoulder, telling him to relax and not be too anxious.

As the fourth group of athletes left the track, the fifth preliminary heat athletes arrived.

Zhou Tianjue was in the third lane in this group. To his left was Lister, the American athlete ranked first in the world this season, and to his right was the Brazilian powerhouse Gomez.

After actually standing on the track, Zhou Tianjue’s previous anxiety and distraction unexpectedly suddenly calmed down.

Perhaps it was because top competitors capable of running under 13.20 seconds flanked him on both sides, and this pressure from strong opponents simply made it impossible for him to maintain his nervous mood.

This sudden sense of relaxation left Zhou Tianjue momentarily at a loss. He neither regained his formerly confident, perfect state, nor felt the pressure that came with nervousness. At this moment, looking down the track ahead, he suddenly felt the course before him was incredibly long.

This feeling made his body feel somewhat cold, and he could only vigorously pat his limbs, trying to enter a relaxed state as much as possible.

With all the athletes on the track intently preparing for the race, Zhou Tianjue felt a hint of confusion.

Then, reason pushed this confusion to the back of his mind.

His eyes inadvertently swept toward the Chinese athletes’ section, where he saw Lü Fei standing up, earnestly looking in his direction, continuously making hand gestures to him.

[Focus!]

This was a gesture he had become accustomed to during his training with Lü Fei since he was young.

When he first began training, he was still young and couldn’t focus well on daily training. Whenever this happened, Lü Fei would make this gesture to him, while telling him he must focus.

Whether during training or in competition.

During his first major competition, he had also been so nervous that he didn’t know what to do. At that time, Lü Fei, who was watching from the sidelines, had made this same gesture to him.

Focus.

Seeing this gesture appear, the nervousness and confusion in his heart suddenly retreated from his mind, and his former competitive state seemed to return to Zhou Tianjue.

He forcefully patted his head, suddenly not knowing what he had been thinking about before.

Seeing the surrounding competitors had already adjusted their starting blocks, and the assistant referee behind them was whistling to remind him to quickly complete his preparations, he immediately crouched down and quickly finished adjusting his starting blocks.

The track ahead, which had seemed endlessly long just seconds ago, now regained its familiar feeling in his heart.

To hell with it, it’s just a preliminary race!

If that little lamb Su Zhe could run so effortlessly, how could he, Zhou Tianjue, lose to him?!

This unyielding feeling suddenly occupied Zhou Tianjue’s entire being. His eyes began to fixate steadily ahead, determined to run a time on this track that wouldn’t lose to the little lamb Su Zhe!

At this moment, the referee’s voice sounded at the perfect time.

“On your marks!”

Everyone stepped onto their starting blocks, ready to go.

“Set!”

“Bang!”

As the starting gun fired, all eight runners on the track exploded forward with maximum power!

In this heat, even the slowest reaction time was no more than 0.167 seconds. The quickest was Brazil’s Gomez, whose 0.122-second reaction time gave him a certain advantage, but Lister and Train followed closely behind with reactions of only 0.128 and 0.133 seconds, preventing him from claiming sole dominance.

Zhou Tianjue’s reaction wasn’t slow either. His 0.136-second response was only slightly behind Train’s, and his explosive power off the blocks was exceptional. During the first 10 meters of the sprint that quickly transitioned into acceleration, his movements were extremely fluid, allowing him to stay close to Gomez and the others in the run-up to the hurdles.

It was an advantageous start that enabled Zhou Tianjue to match the racing rhythm of Lister, Gomez, and the others right from the beginning.

To his left, Lister stood at 196cm tall, which was close to his own height, and even their body proportions were remarkably similar. Lister’s stride length and frequency actually provided useful reference points for Zhou Tianjue.

When clearing the first hurdle, Zhou Tianjue subconsciously fell into nearly identical pacing with Lister ahead of him. This state was both dangerous and delicate. By the second hurdle, Zhou Tianjue immediately noticed he was following Lister’s rhythm. He decisively broke free from this controlled pattern and focused his complete attention straight ahead.

He began gradually increasing his speed. With each hurdle he cleared, his pace quickened. To his left front, Lister had already established a clear lead, while Gomez on the right continued attacking the hurdles relentlessly.

Surrounded by these two, anyone with less mental fortitude might have had their rhythm disrupted, causing changes in their hurdle-clearing tempo and ultimately losing self-control.

But Zhou Tianjue’s mind remained completely steady. After dispelling the initial tension and anxiety that had surrounded him, he returned to his simple, somewhat naive way of thinking.

He firmly believed he wouldn’t lose to Su Zhe in this competition, and was confident his talent and ability matched anyone on the field – after all, he was the true successor chosen by Lü Fei, and he was certain his natural gifts weren’t inferior even to his senior Song Chen.

Perhaps this kind of naive self-confidence really could grant someone special power.

On the track now, Zhou Tianjue was sticking right behind Lister and Gomez. Theoretically stronger competitors like American Train and Britain’s Andre still trailed him by a noticeable margin!

At the commentator’s desk, Chris and Bills were exclaiming, “Oh! Another outstanding Chinese athlete! He’s right behind Lister and Gomez, with very smooth hurdling technique and rhythm!!”

In the Chinese team’s section, Lü Fei stood straight, watching Zhou Tianjue clear one hurdle after another with fluid rhythm. His hands were clenched tight, still not daring to relax.

On the track, Zhou Tianjue felt he was in perfect form!

Even with two competitors stubbornly pressing ahead of him, nothing could diminish his confidence. His hurdling rhythm became increasingly smooth as he steadily maintained his pace, never allowing his speed to noticeably decrease.

As he cleared the tenth hurdle, a strange sense of enlightenment began spreading through his mind, but still in the midst of competition, this feeling flashed by momentarily, temporarily pushed to the back of his thoughts.

The final sprint section!

Lister and Gomez had already begun their sprint slightly ahead of him. On the other lanes, Andre and Train were also about to reach this final battleground!

Charge!

This thought was imprinted in Zhou Tianjue’s mind as he stretched his long legs and sprinted forward at maximum speed, leaning his body forward in a perfect sprinting posture.

At the finish line, Lister successfully crossed first, with Gomez following closely behind, firmly securing second place.

After them, Zhou Tianjue smoothly crossed the line in third position!

“Well done!”

Zheng Wensheng excitedly waved his hand in the competitors’ area. All three Chinese athletes had advanced to the World Championship semifinals! This was another historical record! And Zhou Tianjue’s performance had also met the Olympic qualifying standard for the 110m hurdles!

Having two athletes simultaneously qualify for the Olympic 110m hurdles was great news for the Chinese track and field team!

Only now could Lü Fei finally breathe a sigh of relief. What he witnessed wasn’t just Zhou Tianjue’s third-place finish, but also his beloved student finally crossing a psychological threshold.

Behind Zhou Tianjue, British athlete Andre and American Train crossed the line in succession, with Train slightly ahead, successfully squeezing into the top four of the group to secure direct advancement.

This result was something no one could have predicted before the race.

Su Zhe and Ye Jun, who had already left the track, broke into relaxed smiles when they saw Zhou Tianjue’s cool, confident expression on the big screen.

13.26 seconds (0.7) was Zhou Tianjue’s final time in the preliminary heat.

After exiting the track, Zhou Tianjue found Su Zhe and Ye Jun waiting for him in the athletes’ area. He first smugly messed up Su Zhe’s hair, then cockily said to him, “How about that, little sheep? I won!”

Su Zhe wordlessly swatted his hand away, straightened his hair, and rolled his eyes at him. “Yeah, yeah. Who was so nervous before the race he couldn’t even speak properly?”

Hearing this, Zhou Tianjue immediately glanced in another direction, his ears turning visibly red. Clearly, now that the tension had dissipated, he felt somewhat embarrassed about his earlier mental state.

Facing Su Zhe and Ye Jun’s teasing looks, Zhou Tianjue still tried to save face. “Who hasn’t been nervous before?”

Su Zhe and Ye Jun exchanged amused glances at his words.

“Alright, great run!” Ye Jun patted Zhou Tianjue’s shoulder, then extended his hand toward the two of them. “The preliminaries are over, but let’s keep up the good work for the semifinals! Here’s to surpassing ourselves and achieving our best results in the semifinal!”

Su Zhe placed his hand on top of Ye Jun’s, and finally Zhou Tianjue’s large hand covered both of theirs.

“Let’s all achieve our best results!” Su Zhe said with determination.

“Hmph.” Zhou Tianjue nodded, “This young master will definitely run better in the semifinals! Little lamb and Jun-ge, you’d better catch up to me!”

At these words, Ye Jun and Su Zhe immediately burst into laughter, then both reached for Zhou Tianjue’s head, ruffling his hair while laughingly agreeing.

Online in China, sports fans following the competition were in a frenzy.

This World Athletics Championships had already brought too many surprises. In the two and a half days that had passed, two athletes advanced to the finals in the women’s hammer throw, with Liu Meng qualifying in first place from the preliminaries. Meanwhile, female javelin thrower Zhang Wen had also thrown farther than the Olympic champion in her qualifying group today, giving the Chinese athletics team two strong gold medal opportunities at the World Championships.

Su Zhe’s 100m performance was the most eye-catching event of the past two days. While securing Olympic qualification, he had also broken the record for the best performance by an Asian athlete in the 100 meters at the World Championships.

Not only that, in today’s competition, Su Zhe was the first to advance to the 110m hurdles semifinals with a first-place finish in his heat, followed by Ye Jun and Zhou Tianjue who also qualified for the semifinals.

Three 110m hurdlers simultaneously advancing to the semifinals vaguely reminded many sports fans of the glorious moment when the Chinese team dominated the 110m hurdles event years ago.

Many straight male fans shed tears of joy after seeing Zhou Tianjue’s results.

Three athletes advancing to the semifinals, two securing Olympic qualification.

This spectacular moment gave many sports fans hope for the resurgence of Chinese 110m hurdling.

[Young Master Zhe is awesome! Brother Jue is awesome! Lord Jun is awesome!!!² Chinese Track and Field Team is awesome!!!]

On Weibo, people no longer had the patience to use more words to describe their feelings. This short sentence composed of “XXX is awesome” became the format everyone competed to repost.

This sentence also represented the shared sentiment in everyone’s hearts at this moment!

Author’s Note:

Today’s Little Theater

Cai Cai: (wiping tears) Child, look, since I didn’t feature you yesterday, so many little angels are speaking up for you!
Boss Shao: =_=… I saw that. Some people also suggested not reminding you, to prevent you from remembering to add romantic scenes for me.
Cai Cai: (laughs awkwardly) Ah, is-is that so… Hahaha, don’t worry, there will definitely be romantic scenes… How could Mama forget?
Boss Shao: =_=Oh… Then I’ll eagerly look forward to it… (turns away coldly, closes door, bang…)
Cai Cai: …Sigh, today’s child isn’t very cute =.=