Born to Run

On the morning of July 13th.

The Carozekini Olympic Stadium, which can accommodate more than 10,000 spectators, is full of seats.

After the start of the 10th World Youth Championship in 2004, in addition to spectators from the local city of Grosseto, a large number of spectators from other areas around have flocked to Grosseto, and many of them are even track and field enthusiasts who are traveling in Italy. Also came to the stadium to watch the game.

Although the level of the World Youth Championships is not as good as the World Championships, the biennial World Youth Athletics Championships still made the citizens of Grosseto excited and extremely excited.

In many small cities in Europe, there are very special sports traditions. There are many games every year, in communities, between cities, and across the country. Because of this, competitions have become a very important training method.

Especially in some community and street competitions, the venue is simple, but whether it is athletes or ordinary spectators on the sidelines, everyone's participation is very high.

Standing by the sports side, Nie Fangping looked at the crowds of spectators in the stadium. There were many enthusiastic spectators who even had no seats. They squeezed forward as much as possible, and couldn't help but sigh slightly.

After arriving in Italy, what I saw and heard about going abroad for the first time may be a bit biased, but the enthusiasm for track and field events on the foreign European side is really high.

Now many IAAF Golden Leagues and Grand Prix tournaments are hosted by some traditional small track and field cities. He even heard about it. I don’t know which country is from. There is a small town that regularly holds an international pole vault competition every year. , Attracting pole vaulters from all over the world to participate in the competition.

Compared with the sports atmosphere in many places in Europe, especially in track and field, China is undoubtedly a lot worse. Except for some large-scale sports meets mobilized by the whole people, there are not too many people who really like to watch pure track and field competitions.

One of them is propaganda, the long-term atmosphere is not cultivated, and the other is the personal strength of the players. The audience who are interested in watching track and field matches have a good understanding of track and field. It is easy to come and be at the highest level in the world. Compare the level seen in China. Bored out of boredom, after a few disappointments, it greatly reduced the appeal to the audience.

"Coach Nie, what do you think of Ye Qin's state? Do you have a chance to compete for a medal?"

Watching Ye Qin and other players walk onto the men's 400-meter preliminaries runway, and feeling the cheers from the spectators on both sides of the side, Zhou Bin glanced at Nie Fangping slightly and asked with a smile.

On July 12, the World Youth Championship officially opened.

In the women's 5,000 meters and men's 10,000 meters on the opening day, Messeri Mecam from Ethiopia and Boniface from Uganda won the championships in their respective events and became the focus of the night.

Sun Weiwei, a player who was favored by the Chinese team before the game, did not perform well in the women's 5000m race. He only won fourth place and missed the medal.

The Chinese team has one less chance to compete for a medal. Although there are still a few points left, Zhou Bin still has a lot of pressure on his shoulders.

Like him, the spirit of Nie Fangping during the first two days of coming to Italy was quite exciting, but as the game approached, Nie Fangping gradually returned to his former calmness.

After all, he is not a young man. When he reaches a certain age, he may start to have a sense of curiosity about many things, but he can still clearly distinguish the priorities of the things in front of him.

"It cannot be said that there is no chance at all."

Hearing Zhou Bin's question, Nie Fangping raised his eyebrows slightly, and said directly, "But the strength and level of other players should not be underestimated. First observe Ye Qin's performance and state in the 400m. , Maybe there will be a choice later. By the way, in this preliminaries, Ye Chinke met an old opponent."

If Yeqin were in front of him, neither Zhou Bin nor Nie Fangping would discuss this topic easily. After all, athletes started discussing rankings before they even participated in the competition, which would add pressure to others.

Ye Qin is already on the field. As the team leader of this World Youth Championship, Zhou Bin has a discussion with the coach Nie Fangping on the athlete's condition and performance. Moreover, even if he is familiar with Ye Qin, even if he has some concerns, it is better to pass it through his own coach in charge than if he is the leader of the team.

"Old opponent?"

Zhou Bin looked up at the stadium with some surprise. Among the top seven contestants on the 400-meter starting line about to start the race, there are all kinds of skin tones. In addition to Ye Chin, who he is most familiar with, there is also a black contestant who seems to be mixed. Quite familiar.

"This is... the champion of the men's 400m in the World Junior Championship last year, that Sudanese player?!" Zhou Bin thought for a while, suddenly seemed to remember who the opponent was.

"Well, it's him." Nie Fangping nodded, "You should have seen it during the World Junior Championships last year. When I got the list of contestants, Ye Qin mentioned this person to me."

Nie Fangping didn't know this player before, but after getting the roster, Ye Qin mentioned this player to him, and he also noticed it.

Abu Bakr Ali, Sudanese men's 400-meter track and field athlete, the 2003 World Youth Championship men's 400-meter champion, the time was 46.10. In that game, Yeqin lost to the opponent with 47.23 seconds, more than 1 second behind, and won the bronze medal in the men's 400 meters in the World Junior Championships.

"The strength of this athlete is not bad." Zhou Bin nodded. Abu Bakr Ali and Yeqin are not much different in age. They are also a talented men's 400m athlete, but in last year's World Championship, they were almost crushed. He won the men's 400m championship in style. I just don't know what kind of performance the opponent will have when he comes to the World Youth Championship again after more than a year.

Yeqin stood in front of the starting line of the men's 400-meter preliminaries and looked at Abu Bakr Ali, who was standing in front of him on the sixth lane. He did not expect to bump into each other in the first round of the men's 400-meter preliminaries, and the two were assigned. In a preliminaries group.

Of the seven preliminaries, forty or fifty players, two of them were assigned to one preliminaries group. This probability is not high, which can be said to be a coincidence.

There are a total of three rounds in the men's 400m World Youth Championship, preliminaries, semi-finals and finals.

At 10:10 am on July 13th, the men's 400m preliminaries were held. A total of 48 players from 40 countries participated in the competition and were divided into seven preliminaries.

At 15:20 pm on July 14th, the men’s 400m semi-final, a total of three semi-final groups, the top three players from each group in the preliminaries, and the three best performers in addition to the top three in each group, a total of 24 players Players participate in the semifinals.

At 20:45 on the evening of July 15th, the men's 400-meter final will take the top two of each group in the semi-final and compete with the other two best performers.

Meeting Abu Bakr-Ali, this first preliminary match, for Yeqin, naturally has many extraordinary meanings.

However, although Yeqin recognized the opponent, from the time when he was queued for inspection, Abu Bakr-Ali obviously did not recognize him. Although we competed in a 400-meter men's match last year, just like Chinese people see many black players face blindness, they also have a certain face when they see Asians. Moreover, Abu Bakr-Ali won almost easily at the time, so naturally he won't have any deep memories of his defeated men.

And Ye Qin, when he saw the other party, the blood all over his body instantly boiled.

He won the bronze medal in the World Junior Championships and was the third place, but in fact, the runner-up in the two games, he hardly remembers their looks now, only the champion, the first person to cross the finish line, he Remember very clearly.

After the next World Youth Championship, Ye Chin learned about the opponents he encountered in the World Junior Championships last year. Among them, the men’s 200m champion Youssef Bot, he had already come from Jamaica when he watched the training on the field before the game. The men's 100m contestant in, asked that the opponent did not come to Grosseto to participate in the World Youth Championship because of preparations for the Olympic Games.

Sultan's Abu Bakr Ali, the champion of the men's 400m in the World Junior Championships, stood in front of him at this moment.

Yeqin will not forget the scene where he cried after losing to Abu Bakr-Ali. It was the first time he felt the strong strength of the top players in the same age group, and he had no temper at all to be won.

But now, a year's time has passed.

He has made great progress and his results have improved a lot. He wants to find this place back.

Moreover, even if he can't win, he still wants to run a game with the opponent seriously again, to test his level of progress, and also to see the opponent's strength.

However, although Yeqin wanted to let go of the preliminaries, he had a good match with Abu Bakr-Ali, but before going on the field, Nie Fangping took the trouble to say that in the 400-meter race, if not necessary , Never run too hard, it is best to have reservations.

His goal is to advance to the next round of semifinals, and then finally to the finals. Prior to this, the game does not need to go all-out, with the first goal of securely getting the promotion quota.

Because the schedule of the World Youth Championship is similar to that of the World Youth Championship, Ye Qin participated in the men’s 200m race and the men’s 400m race on the same day. Even compared to the World Youth Championship, the World Youth Championship The game is more troublesome.

The most important thing is on July 15, the day of the men's 400m final.

In addition to the men's 400-meter final in the evening, Yeqin also began the men's 200-meter preliminaries and semi-finals on this day.

The men’s 200m race is also three rounds. The preliminaries will start at 9:30 in the morning on July 15, the semi-finals will start at 16:30 in the evening on July 15, and the final will be held in the evening on July 16. UU reading www.uukanshu.cóm

This situation means that Yeqin will face the biggest physical challenge on July 15.

The most he encountered in previous competitions was two. For example, the 200-meter preliminaries and the 400-meter finals were held on the same day, but there were three matches a day, which definitely puts a lot of pressure on his physical fitness.

Although the distance of the sprint competition is short, every competition basically requires the body to break out to the highest level. Even if it is reserved in the preliminary semi-finals, the intensity is not low, and it is likely to affect Yechin's final men's 400 meters. Physical fitness in the finals.

Ye Qin also knows the problem Nie Fangping explained. In the training mode of training by match and training by match, there is rarely such a situation. It can be said that if you don't want to give up in two matches, it may happen accidentally. , An empty situation.

His first goal should be 400 meters for his main event. If he is unable to catch up, he can consider giving up the 200 meters for men, but Ye Qin does not want to give up. Now that he has signed up, he feels that he should go all out. Give it a try.

Champions, rankings, Olympic results, old opponents, these are all things he needs to win and win one by one. 8)