IBABS Chapter 57 — 110m Hurdles Semifinals (Mainly Su Zhe's Part + Parts of Ye Jun and Zhou Tianjue)

After the match ended and he returned to the Athletes Village, Su Zhe finally had time to check his phone. Besides the usual comforting messages from his silly friend Jiang Hanning, while scrolling through Moments, he unexpectedly saw some familiar street scenes from Country D. Looking carefully, the person who posted them was actually Shao Xingchen.

???

Su Zhe was somewhat surprised. Was Shao Xingchen also in Country D now? But he never mentioned anything about this at all?

After thinking for a moment, Su Zhe opened his chat with Shao Xingchen and sent a question mark.

Soon, the other side responded immediately. A series of photos popped up in the chat box, followed by a smiley face emoji.

Looking closely, this string of photos were all action shots from his competitions these past two days. These photos were clearly taken with a professional telephoto lens. Judging by the quality, they were no less impressive than those taken by professional sports photographers.

Seeing these pictures, Su Zhe was instantly impressed.

“Boss, were you watching the match in person? 囧¹…”

Shao Xingchen on the other end quickly replied with a yes, then added an explanation: “I had work scheduled in Country D, happened to arrive a few days early, so I came to watch some matches. You needed to focus on competing, so I didn’t tell you.”

Reading Shao Xingchen’s explanation, Su Zhe smiled. Regardless, having a friend come watch his match in person was a very pleasant thing.

After thinking for a bit, Su Zhe asked: “Will you come watch the match tomorrow? I can ask someone to take you to the athletes’ section. The view would be better there.”

After receiving this message, Su Zhe saw the chat status showing “typing” for a while, but when the reply finally came, it was just a simple “okay.”

Su Zhe couldn’t help but chuckle at this. Since they met, Shao Xingchen’s seemingly aloof image had collapsed several times. His awkwardness in these strange situations was unexpectedly interesting.

“The photos are great! Can I use them for my Weibo?”

This wasn’t just a polite remark. In the photos Shao Xingchen sent, both speed and power were captured perfectly. If he hadn’t known Shao Xingchen was the photographer, he might have thought they were taken by some professional photographer.

This time, the response from the other side came quickly, just two simple words: “You can.”

That night, Su Zhe updated his Weibo with a set of photos of himself on the field, captioned: Thanks to the photographer for capturing these precious moments on the field worth treasuring.

After being inactive for so long due to training and competitions, this Weibo update made both the Philosophers and his current sports fans very happy. They eagerly complimented him in the comments.

In Country D, after exchanging good nights with Shao Xingchen and posting on Weibo, a doubt flashed through Su Zhe’s mind – were schedules for popular celebrities like Shao Xingchen usually this flexible? Staying in Country D for days for a single job and still having time to come watch matches consecutively?

However, this doubt was just a passing thought. Su Zhe quickly set the question aside, lay down on his bed, and entered his training space in the system. Following his training plan, he began trying to improve his explosive power techniques.

Whether in the 100-meter sprint or the 110-meter hurdles, compared to other strong competitors, his explosive power was considerably weaker. If he wanted to further improve his abilities, he couldn’t stop training his explosive power.

Tomorrow’s semifinal would inevitably be a tough battle.

On October 5th, because it was a Saturday, there were many spectators who came to watch the competitions, and the event schedule had also reached a new peak.

Both the semifinals and finals of the 110-meter hurdles were scheduled for this day, at 10:40 AM and 8:10 PM respectively.

After the previous day’s preliminaries, the 40 contestants in the 110-meter hurdles had been reduced to 24 people in 3 heats. Compared to the relatively easy qualification conditions in the preliminaries, advancing from the semifinals to the finals would be much more difficult.

In this semifinal with three heats, only the top two from each heat plus the next two fastest times would advance to the finals, making eight athletes in total. Based on past experience, only those who ran under 13.25 seconds would have a good chance of making it to the finals.

At 8 AM that day, the semifinal groupings had reached Lü Fei’s hands. Fortunately, Su Zhe and his two teammates had been assigned to different heats. But judging from the groupings alone, Ye Jun’s heat basically announced that he had no hope of advancing.

Ye Jun was in the first semifinal heat, which included American star Lister, Spanish champion Alcides, and Brazilian athlete Elano. If nothing unexpected happened, the first heat would ultimately be a fierce battle among these three strong competitors.

Seeing the worried expressions on Su Zhe and the others’ faces, Ye Jun patted their shoulders and smiled, “It’s fine. With my current performance, making it to the semifinals is already lucky for me. The burden of making it to the finals still lies on you two. You both need to do your best!”

Of course, Su Zhe and the others understood Ye Jun’s words. Even for the two of them, advancing to the finals would be no easy task.

Zhou Tianjue seemed uncomfortable with this heavy atmosphere. He pursed his lips and turned his head. “Just wait and see the young master’s performance in a bit!”

When the 110-meter hurdles officially began, the first semifinal heat played out exactly as everyone had predicted. It was a battle among Lister and the other two champions.

To compete for a spot in the finals, these three famous athletes no longer held back their strength. From the moment the gun sounded, they engaged in an impressive and relentless competition.

In the commentary booth, Chris and Bills couldn’t help but praise this as an early preview of the finals. The battle among these three was no less exciting than what would be seen in the final race.

Behind the three, other athletes were also striving to catch up, but no new miracles emerged in this semifinal.

In the end, Lister qualified first in his heat with a time of 13.15 seconds, while Alcides advanced to the finals as the group’s second-place finisher with a time of 13.18 seconds.

The third-place finisher in the group, Elano, also achieved an impressive time of 13.19 seconds. In previous years, this might have been good enough for first place in some semifinal heats, but in this terrifying “group of death,” he could only remain on standby as the third-place finisher.

Although Ye Jun finished fourth in his semifinal heat and even broke his personal best, his time of 13.32 seconds left almost no possibility of advancing to the finals.

On domestic social media, sports fans watching the live broadcast couldn’t help but sigh in regret for Ye Jun. Still, his performance in this competition had been excellent, and everyone applauded him with slightly regretful hearts, acknowledging his effort.

In the second semifinal heat, Zhou Tianjue found himself among competitors of relatively even strength. Although there were strong athletes, none were top-tier powerhouses like Lister who might run under 13.20 seconds at any moment.

The strongest was perhaps Louis from the American team, followed by Zhou Tianjue himself and Adolphe from the French team.

In this race, Zhou Tianjue ran very smoothly from the start.

After yesterday’s preliminary and post-race analysis, he had reviewed his performance and seemed to have grasped the technique that helped him run 13.26 seconds.

In today’s semifinal, he tried to recall the feeling from the previous day’s race. This short-term memory recall helped him successfully find yesterday’s rhythm. From the start to clearing the hurdles, his pace was very fluid, allowing him to successfully secure the second position behind Louis, almost guaranteeing his advancement.

But in competitions, there are always unpredictable situations.

Just as Su Zhe was watching the race and silently cheering for Zhou Tianjue, after clearing the final hurdle and entering the final sprint, Adolphe, who had been running behind him, hit the tenth hurdle and then veered into the wrong lane during the sprint!

Adolphe clearly noticed his mistake, but it was too late to correct his course. In his desperate attempt to straighten his path, Adolphe lost control of his body. He lunged forward during the sprint, diving straight toward Zhou Tianjue who hadn’t run far ahead. As he fell onto the track, his left hand instinctively tried to brace against the ground but instead grabbed Zhou Tianjue’s heel…!

“Zhou Tianjue!!”

Su Zhe’s expression changed instantly as witnessed Zhou Tianjue’s heel being grabbed by Adolphe. In the Chinese athletes’ section, Zheng Wensheng and Lü Fei, who had been smiling moments ago, both jumped to their feet in shock.

In the blink of an eye, Zhou Tianjue, with his heel caught, fell violently forward near the finish line due to his forward momentum. In an instant, his knees hit the ground, both hands scraped across the track surface, and his elbows were covered in red marks with blood soon flowing out.

In the stands, gasps of shock echoed throughout the Celion Stadium at this sight.

The French athlete Adolphe who had knocked down Zhou Tianjue quickly got up first, apologetically helping up the athlete he had crashed into.

After struggling to his feet, Zhou Tianjue looked toward the finish line with undisguised regret. The athletes who had been behind them had now crossed the finish line as the group’s second-place finisher.

The second semifinal heat ended with this dramatic scene.

By the time Su Zhe took to the track with the participants of the final semifinal heat, Zhou Tianjue and the others had already left the field. Throughout the stadium, many spectators were still whispering, discussing the unfortunate accident that just happened.

The only consolation was that neither of the contestants who fell seemed to have suffered serious injuries, which could be considered a blessing amidst the misfortune.

Now on the track, because of the previous accident, many athletes were eyeing each other warily, and seemed somewhat cautious of their fellow competitors.

After all, such accidents weren’t uncommon in competitions. If it happened to you, not only would your race results be invalidated, but you might also suffer greater consequences due to injury.

For a moment, the atmosphere on the track became somewhat tense.

In the third semifinal heat with Su Zhe, the most notable competitors were Brazilian athlete Gomez, who had the ability to run under 13.20 seconds, and French athlete Hubert, who had qualified for the semifinals with a time of 13.25 seconds in the preliminaries.

Besides them, Jamaican athlete Percival’s abilities couldn’t be underestimated either. Who would ultimately make it to the finals would depend on their performance on the track shortly.

On the field, Su Zhe and the other athletes completed their preparation routines under the somewhat oppressive atmosphere. When he looked up toward the Chinese athletes’ section, Su Zhe saw that alongside the Chinese track and field team members, coaches, and team leaders who had come to watch, there was also someone wearing a baseball cap setting up a camera and tripod.

Looking at that massive telephoto lens, Su Zhe smiled and waved toward the athletes’ section, then turned his full attention to the imminent race.

The referee’s voice came through the stadium’s broadcast system.

“On your marks.”

“Set.”

On the eight lanes, the athletes had assumed their explosive starting positions, just waiting for the final gunshot!

“Bang!”

All eight athletes sprang into action.

But perhaps influenced by the previous race’s incident where Adolphe had knocked down Zhou Tianjue, the athletes in this heat seemed somewhat conservative and tense during the starting phase.

The quickest reaction to the gun came from French athlete Hubert, but his reaction time was still 0.134 seconds, not even breaking into the 0.12X second range.

Su Zhe’s reaction to the gun wasn’t fast either; his 0.141-second reaction time could only be considered average, making it difficult for him to gain an advantage at the start in such a major competition.

But the circumstances were quite unique this time. There were many athletes in a similar state as him. Even Gomez surprisingly took 0.152 seconds in his reaction to the gun.

In the moment of pushing off from the starting blocks to surge forward, Su Zhe finally stabilized his mental state. He temporarily set aside his less-than-successful reaction time and worked to increase his explosive power, strengthening his force to move forward in a faster speed.

For Su Zhe, in the 110-meter hurdles, he already possessed relatively mature techniques. Whether in the pre-hurdle running phase or in hurdling technique, making further improvements wasn’t something that could be achieved in a short time.

His biggest advantage has always been during the inter-hurdle run², specifically his control of the inter-hurdle rhythm³ and his ability to maintain the maximum speed between the hurdles⁴. To improve his performance, he needs to focus on improving his split speed⁵, which is his weakest area.⁶

Last night, he had repeatedly practiced techniques to enhance his explosive power in the training space.
His overall inter-hurdle speed was weakest during the sprint phase from the first to third hurdles. Because his explosive power wasn’t sufficient during the acceleration after starting, he needed to build up power during the first three hurdles, accumulating forward momentum and thrust to gradually reach his top speed in the later stages of the race.

Lü Fei had discussed it this issue with him during the training camp. However, explosive power training couldn’t be accomplished overnight. If he forcibly increased his existing explosive power habits, he might risk injury.

During this period, to improve his explosive power control, he had consistently been searching for a better balance point in the training space. Finally, during last night’s training, he made slight progress.

On the track, Su Zhe’s eyes were fixed on the hurdles ahead. Eight steps before the hurdle, he began unconsciously increasing his explosive power, while controlling his stride length and step angle. Through this slight increase in explosive power, he started accumulating more strength during the pre-hurdle phase.

When he reached the first hurdle, his right foot pushed hard against the ground, using both his own strength and the power accumulated during the pre-hurdle phase to begin his journey across the hurdles!

At this moment, in the sports channel’s live broadcast in China, countless sports enthusiasts were watching Su Zhe’s every move intently, fearing that he might experience any mishap or delay on the track.

Although the race lasted just over ten seconds, everyone couldn’t help but tense up.

Come on, Zhe-shao!

You got this!!!

Carrying the final hope of China’s track and field hurdles team, Su Zhe’s eyes looked toward the finish line as he used extremely exquisite technique to clear the hurdles with minimal clearance height, avoiding any collision with the barriers.

This precise hurdling technique was no less impressive than that of the top athletes around him. Combined with his deliberately enhanced explosive power, Su Zhe had gradually made up for the time lost during his reaction to the gun by the time he cleared the fourth hurdle!

In front of him, Gomez and Hubert were competing for first place. Gomez, worthy of his world eighth-best time this year, had extremely smooth inter-hurdle rhythm. The speed variance between hurdles was minimal, making him very stable and fast on the track.

Hubert, after a brief advantage in the pre-hurdle section, seemed to encounter a slight issue with his inter-hurdle rhythm. When clearing the third hurdle, he slightly hit it. Although it was not a major problem, it still affected his speed somewhat, causing his advantage to weaken slightly, and by the fifth hurdle, Gomez had gradually caught up to him.

The inter-hurdle rhythms of Gomez and Hubert weren’t consistent. While Gomez maintained a stable inter-hurdle pace, Hubert’s speed reached its peak at the sixth hurdle. Simultaneously, his speed began to gradually decline, even reaching his lowest speed of the entire race at the eighth hurdle.

Su Zhe’s lane was to the right of Hubert. As he continued forward with a fluid inter-hurdle rhythm and reached his fastest inter-hurdle speed at the seventh hurdle, Hubert to Su Zhe’s left seemed to panic slightly due to his own rapidly declining speed.

When Su Zhe began to overtake him with excellent inter-hurdle rhythm, Hubert’s composure seemed to collapse. He desperately wanted to overtake this athlete who had been behind him, but this urgent mindset didn’t give him an advantage. Instead, he made a major mistake when crossing the ninth hurdle, directly knocking it over.

Hubert’s error startled many athletes still behind him, and the athlete in the lane to Hubert’s right also made a hurdle-hitting mistake because of this.

Ahead of them, although Su Zhe heard the commotion behind him, he forcibly maintained his focus, directing all his attention straight ahead.

In lane two, some distance from Hubert, Jamaican athlete Percival had also cleared the ninth hurdle. Because he was some distance from Hubert, Percival wasn’t affected at all. His inter-hurdle speed between the last two hurdles was also quite impressive; when Su Zhe successfully landed after clearing a hurdle, Percival simultaneously cleared the tenth hurdle!

Only the final 14-meter sprint remained!

Su Zhe had no time to care about any surrounding athletes. He quickly adjusted his posture while running and assumed his final sprint stance. In lane two, Percival also adopted a sprinting posture.

The two men’s speeds were nearly identical. Su Zhe had stronger late-race acceleration ability and a certain advantage in cadence, but his stride length couldn’t compare to Percival’s. With a height of 194cm, Percival’s advantage in stride length far exceeded Su Zhe’s.

The two men were evenly matched in the final 14-meter sprint. Each made a forward-leaning sprint posture, not giving up the slightest advantage they could gain.

When Su Zhe used all his strength to push off for the final step toward the finish line, Percival likewise completed his finishing motion.

Neither the spectators in the stadium, the commentators, nor the viewers watching the broadcast could easily tell who had won the second qualifying spot from their nearly identical movements.

In the Chinese athletes’ section, Zheng Wensheng nervously gripped the back of the chair in front of him, his anxious expression speaking for itself. Lü Fei’s brows were also tightly furrowed, as were those of Su Yinsheng, who had also come to watch Su Zhe’s race.

Who was the second-place athlete in this group?

Zheng Wensheng couldn’t help but smile bitterly. “Another simultaneous finish, why is it this situation again?”

Obviously, he was referring to the 100-meter semifinal situation, where Su Zhe had crossed the line at the same time as Nigerian athlete Sandy, ultimately securing third place in the semifinal group by the narrowest of margins and advancing to the 100-meter final as a qualifier.

Would today also result in a wildcard qualification for the finals?

In the commentary booth, Chris and Bills had already received the key video screenshots submitted by the judges, and the on-site director also projected this image onto the broadcast screen.

On the big screen, Su Zhe’s torso had clearly crossed the line faster than Percival’s, with the comparison between the two being clear and distinct.

Chris announced loudly from the commentary booth, “In the third heat of the 110-meter hurdles semifinal, let’s all congratulate athlete Gomez and athlete Su Zhe for directly advancing to the 110-meter hurdles final!”

Immediately, another round of cheers erupted from the Chinese athletes’ section.

In this competition against Percival, the ultimate victor was – Su Zhe!