IBABS Chapter 69.1 — Japan Invitational 60m Heats & Final

Due to the differences in events between indoor and outdoor track and field competitions, only about half of the National Track Team members were invited to participate in the invitational meet in Japan.

Before departure, Zheng Wensheng had specifically called Su Zhe, reminding him to maintain a positive image during interviews in Japanese programs and to be mindful of his words.

When the plane landed around 5 PM, Su Zhe and the others exited the plane and were once again greeted by the staff from the Japanese Track and Field Association waiting at the arrival gate.

December in Japan was already quite cold. This year, perhaps due to unusual climate patterns, Tokyo had become a snowy landscape even before January arrived.

The National Team members, bundled in down jackets, followed the staff to board the specially arranged bus that would take them to the reception hotel prepared by the Track Association.

Recently, Su Zhe had been training with his father and Lü Fei on 100m and 110m hurdles during the day. At night, after falling asleep, he would enter the system space to train his camera presence, shooting skills, and work on improving his physical attributes. Even with deep sleep as his magical recovery tool, he was genuinely exhausted.

Now, on the bus heading to the hotel, Su Zhe covered himself with his down jacket and rested his head against the window with his eyes closed. His delicate face peeked out from the oversized jacket, with slightly messy hair falling across his cheeks, making him look exceptionally young and adorable.

Zhou Tianjue, who was sitting in the front, put away his game and was about to turn around to say something when he saw Su Zhe napping in such a state.

Ye Jun, who sat in the same row as Su Zhe, made a hushing gesture to Zhou Tianjue. Zhou Tianjue blinked, then switched to his phone’s camera function and snapped a quick photo of Su Zhe’s sleeping face.

A minute later, Zhou Tianjue posted the photo on his Weibo, specifically tagging Su Zhe, followed by a row of smug smoking emojis with the caption: [You really are a little sheep!]

Those who followed Zhou Tianjue’s Weibo were mostly ordinary sports enthusiasts, commonly known as straight male fans.

But even these straight male fans were momentarily stunned when they saw the photo.

[Damn, that’s Zhe-shao… I feel guilty, I felt my heart skip a beat for a second!]
[Lights cigarette.jpg What’s with this soft and cute face? This can’t be our Zhe-shao… I thought the photos Shao Xingchen took of him were good, he looked really cool and handsome in those. How did it turn into this heart-fluttering illusion…]
[I’m starting to think there’s nothing wrong with Jue-ge’er calling Zhe-shao a little sheep…]

A group of straight male fans fell into a brief existential crisis after seeing Su Zhe’s photo.

But never mind the confused fans on Weibo back home.

In Japan, the reception bus had already arrived at the hotel. As the National Track Team members got off the bus one after another, Su Zhe finally woke up groggily from all the commotion. After ruffling his hair a couple times, he hugged his down jacket and got off the bus.

While Su Zhe was waiting with Ye Jun and others at the hotel lobby for room assignments, a staff member from the Japanese Track Association specifically approached him, saying there was a gift for him at the front desk.

Su Zhe was surprised. Who could have managed to have a gift delivered to him at the hotel’s front desk?

Only after receiving the gift from the receptionist did Su Zhe notice Shiraishi Shouta’s name on the attached note, along with a handwritten letter: “Su, happy birthday. This is a belated birthday gift. I’m glad to see you in Japan again. Your skills have improved rapidly, and I continue to work hard too. May we both achieve even better results.”

The Chinese letter, with its slightly crooked characters¹, appeared to be personally written by Shiraishi Shouta, filled with sincerity.

Ye Jun, who had accompanied Su Zhe to the front desk, was also surprised and rubbed his chin saying, “I didn’t expect you to have such good friends in Japan, Ah Zhe.”

Su Zhe smiled and affirmed this, then carried the gift as he followed Ye Jun and the others to their assigned hotel rooms.

The next morning, the Track Team members boarded the bus again and arrived at the indoor stadium for the competition.

This venue was much smaller than an outdoor stadium, with the outermost track measuring only 200 meters long. Unlike outdoor venues with nine lanes, this one had just six lanes total, and following World Athletics² standards, the outer track had a slight inward incline.

Along the center line of the stadium were eight narrow 60m tracks. The indoor tracks were narrower than outdoor ones, creating the impression that athletes in adjacent lanes might bump into each other. At the finish line, there wasn’t enough space for athletes to slow down gradually. Instead, thick foam pads were installed as buffer barriers.

Compared to outdoor stadiums, perhaps the only advantage of indoor venues was that competitions weren’t affected by wind speed, and athletes didn’t have to worry about wind or rain.

By the time the athletes arrived, the spectator stands were already full. Even the harsh winter cold didn’t deter the Japanese people’s enthusiasm for track and field events.

Because the indoor venue was so small, there was barely any separation between the athletes’ seating area and the spectator stands. When the Chinese team entered, there was a brief commotion in the surrounding stands, but it quickly quieted down again.

From the Chinese athletes’ section, they could faintly hear sounds like “Su, Su” coming from the direction of the audience.

Zhang Minghao looked around and dramatically exclaimed, “Damn, there are so many Japanese people holding Su Zhe’s photos. Are they all Su Zhe’s fans?”

Many Track Team members also noticed a small group not far away, where several girls holding Su Zhe’s photos and name banners were sitting together, chattering excitedly.

“Su Zhe’s so awesome. No wonder they invited him for a special interview. His popularity is really impressive.”

Unlike his teammates sitting in the spectator area, Su Zhe’s men’s 60m sprint was scheduled for 9:30 AM on the first day. While the other team members were heading to their seats, he, Zhao Zhixuan, and Meng Hao were already warming up in the preparation area.

Not many countries had been invited for this invitational meet in Japan. Including China, South Korea, Qatar, and Bahrain, only 12 countries were participating. It was considered a small to medium-sized Asian invitational competition. However, since indoor competitions had compressed both the 100m and 200m events into 60m sprints, there were still many participants in the 60m event.

In the athletes’ preparation area, Su Zhe recognized several familiar athletes, mostly those he had met at the previous Asian Championship Invitational or the World Championships, such as Norman from Bahrain, Andrew from Qatar, Faisal from Saudi Arabia, and others.

Among them, a naturalized Black athlete glared angrily at Su Zhe when their eyes met, leaving Su Zhe puzzled. A moment later, he recalled that this athlete was probably Bellman, who had once declared war on him and claimed to be Andrew’s good friend.

For this indoor competition, Japan’s top athletes including Minamiyama Yuki, Kobayashi Kimiko, Shiraishi Shouta, and Takeshita Hiroaki were all participating in the event.

Su Yinsheng had analyzed these Japanese competitors with Su Zhe before he came to participate, explaining that Japan hadn’t previously placed much emphasis on indoor competitions. However, in recent years, new theories suggested that 60m indoor performance could effectively boost 100m results, which led to Japan gradually increasing their focus on indoor events.

Led by Minamiyama Yuki, this new generation of Japanese top athletes had achieved impressive results in indoor competitions. Besides being the holder of Japan’s 100m national record, Minamiyama had also set a new Japanese 60m sprint record last year with a time of 6.53 seconds.

When they saw Su Zhe, Minamiyama and the others greeted him politely. Shiraishi’s eyes lit up upon seeing him, but unlike before, he didn’t rush over. Looking closer, Su Zhe noticed large patches of medical plaster on his right leg wrapped with athletic bandages, suggesting a recent injury.

Seeing Shiraishi’s condition, Su Zhe frowned and was about to ask what had happened when Shiraishi spoke first, looking somewhat awkward as he scratched his head, “Su, I’m fine… small injury.”

Although his Chinese was halting, Shota Shiraishi could now express his basic thoughts in the language.

Su Zhe looked at Shiraishi with surprise, then smiled and praised his Chinese. After briefly exchanging pleasantries with Minamiyama and the others, he thanked Shiraishi for the birthday gift and urged him to take care of his health.

Starting at 9:30, forty athletes from different countries were led by staff members onto the field in batches.

Su Zhe was placed in the third heat of the 60m preliminaries, after Zhao Zhixuan and Meng Hao.

Listening to the increasingly enthusiastic cheers from the venue, Su Zhe couldn’t help but feel excited. Training had completely dominated his life recently. Although training inevitably occupied the majority of every athlete’s life, the passion during competitions remained indispensable for athletes.

Still, he slightly restrained his emotions, knowing that the morning was just for preliminaries and not the time to release all his competitive fervor.

When the cheers for the previous preliminary heat subsided, the staff member responsible for guiding the participants returned to the preparation area to lead Su Zhe and the other competitors in the third preliminary group to the indoor track.

In Su Zhe’s group were Japan’s Minamiyama Yuki and Bellman from Bahrain, who had previously taunted Su Zhe at the World Championships.

When Bellman saw that he was in the same group as Su Zhe, his face clearly flashed with displeasure. Throughout their walk to the competition area, the Bahraini athlete pretended not to recognize Su Zhe.

Minamiyama Yuki, however, continued to smile and greeted Su Zhe warmly.

Shortly after everyone entered the field, a small section of the audience suddenly erupted in excited shouts, while one of the venue’s large screens aptly focused its camera on Su Zhe, who was preparing at the starting blocks.

“Ohhhhh! Su!! It’s our Su!!”

In the spectator area, Japanese girls who had come specifically to cheer began to shout excitedly, even calling out in practiced Chinese, “Su Zhe, jiayou³!! We love you!!”

Just as Su Zhe finished adjusting his starting blocks, he was caught off guard by the sudden cheers from his fans. He looked up in surprise, and his startled expression was clearly captured by the automated boom camera, appearing on the large screens on both sides of the venue.

In the athletes’ seating area, Zhang Minghao watched the increasingly heated atmosphere and Su Zhe’s surprised face on the big screen with a dazed expression. He turned to Ye Jun and exclaimed, “This is insane. If I didn’t know this was an indoor competition, I would have thought it was some big fan meeting… Su Zhe’s popularity in Japan… I’m looking around, and damn, it’s not just female fans, he’s got otaku⁴ fans too???”

Zhang Minghao was referring to a group of male fans also in Su Zhe’s cheering section. When Su Zhe’s close-up appeared on the big screen, these guys shouted just as loudly as the Japanese girls who outnumbered them.

On the track, after a few seconds of surprise, Su Zhe stood up and smiled, waving toward his fan section.

After thanking these fans who had come to cheer him on, he refocused his attention on the preliminary race that was about to begin.