IBABS Chapter 81.2 — Men's 60m Hurdles Semifinals End & Results

While everyone was in this nervous state, the athletes for the third heat of the men’s 60m hurdles semifinals stepped onto the track one after another.

At the broadcast control room, perhaps to ease the tension, they switched the camera to the audience area. Whether the cameraman didn’t notice or the director did it on purpose, the big screen suddenly focused on a young man in a baseball cap sitting near the front rows. Noticing he was on screen, the figure raised a hand to press down the brim of his cap.

Su Zhe, who was adjusting his starting blocks at the starting line, happened to look up at one of the big screens on the side after his practice run. On the screen, that young man in the baseball cap was not only wearing the cap but also had on a black mask and a down jacket, making his facial features and body shape completely unrecognizable.

Su Zhe froze for a second, then broke into a smile. He turned to scan the venue. He quickly found where Shao Xingchen was sitting and waved in his direction.

By then, the broadcast had already shifted away from Shao Xingchen, just in time to capture Su Zhe waving. Seeing this, the crowd erupted into cheers, enthusiastically calling out his name from the stands.

There wasn’t much preparation time before the race. Su Zhe simply waved toward Boss Shao’s direction before refocusing his attention on the current competition.

Su Zhe was assigned to lane three for this race. To his right was Jamaica’s Holness.

This Jamaican teenager was about the same height as Su Zhe. Like other Jamaican athletes, he had naturally curly hair and dark skin. He kept his hair long, tied up in a loose, fluffy ponytail.

As soon as he spotted Su Zhe, his eyes immediately lit up. He gestured at their similar heights, then grinned, flashing a set of bright white teeth.

“Hey, hello! I’m Holness!”

Even though this was right before the race, Holness was incredibly relaxed. He smiled and extended his hand to Su Zhe, clearly wanting to shake hands.

Su Zhe also smiled and shook Holness’s hand, nodding in response. “Hello, I’m Su Zhe.”

Holness gave their clasped hands an enthusiastic shake and grinned goofily. “I know you! I’ve watched your races! You’re really amazing. Of course, I’m going to be even more amazing! Hah, I’m going to show all those people who call me shorty what it’s like to be dominated by a shorty!”

His words made Su Zhe pause for a moment, then he laughed too. This Jamaican teenager had an unexpectedly interesting personality that reminded him of his goofy friend Jiang Hanning.

“Good luck!” Holness added, suddenly serious. “I believe you can definitely run fast too, and then we can crush those big guys together! From now on, we’ll be the shorty kings of the hurdles world, making those tall guys kneel before us and feel what real power is like!”

…

Awkward.

After hearing Holness’s declaration, Su Zhe was once again convinced that this teenager, whom Coach Lü had listed as a major threat, was essentially just like that guy Jiang Hanning, a complete goofball.

After nodding somewhat dazedly, Su Zhe shook his head with mixed feelings of amusement and resignation, pushing all these irrelevant thoughts and emotions out of his mind.

At the starting line, all eight athletes were ready for the race to begin.

Su Zhe, Holness, Percival, and Louis were positioned in lanes 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively, forming a neat row across the middle of the eight-lane track.

A tense, low-pressure atmosphere had settled over the center lanes. Even Holness, who usually seemed like a jokester, now had a stern expression, his eyes focused intently on the track ahead of him as he radiated an overwhelming presence.

“On your marks.”

The starter’s calm voice came through the broadcast to everyone at the venue. The athletes positioned themselves in their starting stances on the blocks.

“Set.”

“Bang!”

After the clean crack of the starter’s pistol, all eight runners reacted simultaneously.

Su Zhe pushed off hard with his left leg against the starting block, instantly exploding with power, using his strong explosive strength to enter the full acceleration phase before the first hurdle.

Beside him, Holness shot forward like a black lightning bolt. From the moment he started, he already gave people the thrilling sensation of lightning speed.

What incredible acceleration!

Everyone in the stands gasped in shock at Holness’s explosive start. Meanwhile, Percival and Louis’s speeds were on par with Su Zhe’s, the three of them locked in a tight battle.

Both Holness and Su Zhe used the seven-step approach to the first hurdle. About one body length behind him, Su Zhe was also desperately chasing that black lightning’s silhouette.

Su Zhe’s pre-hurdle steps had become quite smooth. Due to the characteristics of the seven-step approach, his body leaned forward at a greater angle than before, allowing him to harness stronger forward momentum from pushing off the ground with each step on the track.

Combined with the powerful explosive force of his left leg push-off, these factors were precisely why he managed to keep pace with Percival and Louis in the early stage of the race!

In fact, before changing from eight to seven steps, Su Zhe’s constant concern had been that his insufficient height meant his limb length was shorter than those tall athletes with long legs. In this situation, if he wanted to change his pre-hurdle steps from eight to seven, it would inevitably mean that his stride length for each step before the hurdle would have to increase considerably.

The core challenge of this technical adjustment lay in whether he could still maintain a high enough step frequency after the change. After all, step frequency plus stride length together determine the final running speed.

Fortunately, he really had talent for controlling step frequency. Also, because he had undergone comprehensive physical fitness improvement training in the system space, his body could handle larger stride lengths while still allowing him to quickly increase his step frequency.

Now on the track, Su Zhe had smoothly completed his seven-step approach. On the seventh step, his lead leg was perfectly positioned for him to launch over the hurdle.

As the ball of his right foot touched down, he exploded with powerful force, supporting his body as it entered the hurdling phase!

His swing leg folded and swung over the hurdle, and his leaning body smoothly used the momentum to fly over the hurdle bar, almost grazing its top edge. Immediately after, his lead leg lifted and folded, following through on the right side of his body as it cleared the hurdle!

“Good!”

Lu Fei shouted in approval. From the moment Su Zhe reacted to the starting gun to when he cleared the first hurdle, his entire movement had a smooth beauty that combined explosive power with technique. His own excellent rhythm also turned this dynamic sequence into a visual feast.

Beside Su Zhe, Holness was still about one body length ahead of Su Zhe. This Jamaican teenager had an overall posture that was both graceful and powerful, and each of his movements was also a perfect combination of strength and beauty.

Among the four runners in the middle lanes, the first to drop out of the leading group was Percival in lane 5. Perhaps because he had already experienced Holness’ dominance and pressure in domestic Jamaican competitions, Percival’s rhythm had shown slight instability since the approach phase. After entering the hurdle clearance stage, Percival’s overall rhythm was completely thrown off by Holness.

On the hurdles track, losing your own rhythm is a very dangerous thing. It basically means the race is lost.

After his rhythm was disrupted, Percival hit hurdle after hurdle, even causing the other hurdles around him to shake.

Louis, who was originally keeping pace with Percival, also had his rhythm affected when Percival started hitting hurdles, as the resulting hurdle vibrations caused flaws in Louis’s rhythm too.

However, Louis proved himself a truly strong competitor. He managed to clear each shaking hurdle without major issues. At the same time, since he had never competed in the same race as Holness before, he hadn’t developed too much psychological fear of this small competitor yet.

From the third hurdle onward, the real contenders on the track were reduced to just three: Holness, Su Zhe, and Louis.

Among these three, Holness was the first to reach his maximum speed. He touched down between hurdles, stepped, then cleared each hurdle in one smooth sequence of movements that seemed to get faster and faster. He was like an electric arc, quickly streaming forward, fast and hard to catch.

Su Zhe kept his eyes fixed ahead, refusing to be affected by this elusive rhythm. He maintained his own rhythm, gradually increasing his speed at each hurdle. In the heated cheering from the audience, the hot blood in his chest also kept pushing him to go faster and faster.

The fourth hurdle, the fifth hurdle…

On the 60m hurdles track, the brief series of five hurdles passed in what seemed like an instant.

After the fifth hurdle, Holness’s speed showed a slight weakening, while Louis seemed to still be somewhat affected by Percival. When clearing the last two hurdles, he was slightly conservative and didn’t display his fastest speed.

Entering the final sprint phase, Su Zhe trailed Holness by a full 1.5 body lengths, while Louis ran almost even with Su Zhe, just slightly behind.

“Go! Go!!!”

In the stands, the audience shouted hoarsely. Everyone waved the red flags in their hands, staring intently at the finish line position, waiting for the final outcome.

Finally, after Holness crossed the finish line first, Su Zhe leaned forward in a final lunge. In the final sprint phase, he successfully mobilized his powerful late-race acceleration, forcing himself to go one step further, one step faster as he crossed the finish line!

Right behind Su Zhe was the American athlete Louis. His speed weakened somewhat in the final sprint phase. Although he wasn’t slow either, he still lost to Su Zhe.

“Yes!!!” Zhang Jing shouted from the commentary booth. “In semifinal heat three, the Jamaican athlete crossed the line first, while our country’s athlete Su Zhe also successfully qualified for the finals with a second place finish in his heat!”

After announcing this good news, the audience at the venue also stood up from their seats one after another, celebrating Su Zhe’s successful advancement with even more unrestrained enthusiasm.

“Now we come to the final moment of waiting for this heat’s results,” Wang Miaochuan said with a hint of nervousness in his voice. “What were the results for third and fourth place in this heat? Can our country achieve the brand new record of having two athletes simultaneously advance to the indoor championship finals for the first time? Let’s wait and see!”

Perhaps sensing how much the audience at the venue was anticipating this result, the finishing judges quickly delivered the final results sheet for this heat to the commentary booth and the venue’s big screen after careful calculation.

Zhang Jing solemnly began announcing this heat’s semifinal results: “Men’s 60m hurdles semifinal heat three: First place: Holness (Jamaica) 7.48 seconds. Second place: (Su Zhe) 7.51 seconds. Third place: Louis (USA) 7.56 seconds. Fourth place: Percival (Jamaica) 7.64 seconds…”

By the time he read Louis’s result, Zhang Jing could barely contain his excitement. After announcing all the results for this heat, Zhang Jing finally declared loudly, “Congratulations to France’s Adolphe and our country’s Zhou Tianjue for successfully advancing to the finals with the top two times among the remaining qualifiers!!!”

Both in the venue and online, all spectators erupted in excited cheers!

For the first time ever!

This was the first time that the Chinese team had two athletes simultaneously advance to the finals in a hurdles event at a world-class competition like the World Indoor Athletics Championships!!!

Author’s Note:
Today’s Mini Theater
Caicai: 0.0 Baby, look how good mama is to you. Even at such a tense moment, I still gave you screen time! Look, the baby even recognized you!
Boss Shao: … (After a moment of silence, with difficulty) Thanks?
Caicai: … – – Why do you still look unsatisfied?
Boss Shao: … I want to take off my hat.
Caicai: (surprised look) =0=
Boss Shao: (silent for 5 seconds) Never mind, I know it’s not the right time yet. I don’t want to.
Caicai: … =.= Baby is a bit sad today, let me pat you… _(:з」∠)_