I Wasn't Born a Champion - Chapter 10

While the trainees were crying out in surprise, the coaches of the sprint group also called out and stopped Wang Pengfei.

“Pengfei, is this Su Yu really that Su Yu??”

“Didn’t his parents specially pull strings to come to the team and report beforehand, saying that during the summer camp they would trouble Liu Wenjian to take care of their family’s child?”

“If I remember correctly, didn’t his family say that the child’s body is extremely weak and he just wants to come to exercise?”

“Does he really have no training foundation?”

Looking at this group of coaches with shocked faces, Wang Pengfei’s face also became smug and triumphant, as if he also had a share in the matter of unearthing Su Yu’s strength.

He gave a hehe smile toward the various coaches. “That’s right, it’s him.”

“Don’t even talk about a training foundation. He is a master whose physical education classes have been exempted from examinations all the way from childhood to adulthood.”

“You all don’t know Su Yu’s previous personal best 100-meter result yet, right? He has been exempted from exams in physical education all the way from primary school to junior high school, and only occasionally when his condition was good did he participate in a classroom test once or twice. Up until the present moment, his best test result hasn’t even entered 17.50 seconds.”

Listening to Wang Pengfei’s words, the various coaches fell silent for a moment, and said, “So the trainee that Little Pei took a fancy to really is him?!”

“Aiyo!”

Wang Pengfei froze for a moment, immediately glaring—it’s over, these old foxes have tricked the words out of him.

Seeing Wang Pengfei’s appearance like this, one who had a relatively good relationship with him simply cast a white eye toward him. “Alright now, what are you being shocked for? With Su Yu’s performance just now, even if you hadn’t given it away, we basically would have guessed it was him.”

After the few coaches finished speaking, they no longer paid attention to Wang Pengfei, but rather gathered together and started chatting.

“A headwind result of 14.32 seconds—this result is quite not bad!”

“Does this Su Yu really have completely no training foundation?”

“It doesn’t look like it! Didn’t you see when he was running midway just now, his running posture was maintained very well? Moreover, if they haven’t gone through training, an ordinary kid’s body center of gravity and foot landing points won’t be as accurate as his, right?”

Including the continuous strides from the starting phase, Su Yu’s overall forward-leaning posture of the body was also very obvious. Because the other trainees basically had not received training for starting block starts, their forward-leaning postures of the body during the starting explosion phase could not be said to be completely wrong, but could only be said to be wrong in a hundred flowering ways.

Something like an incorrect forward-leaning position of the body was already a minor problem like sprinkled water. Other people’s errors might only be the torso forward-leaning above the waist, while some trainees simply only leaned their heads and shoulders forward, making it look not like a 100-meter start but rather a hunched-body run.

In addition, reaching the stride phase during the early body form transformation, the transition and connection of his movements such as hip flexion, knee flexion, extension, and pushing off were also very smooth. On this point, he was even stronger than quite a few youth team athletes in their provincial team.

One had to know that some kids in the youth team just could not learn for the life of them to let the landing support leg and the ground form an acute angle during the initial acceleration phase to avoid insufficient braking force.

Oh, don’t just talk about the youth team; even among the adult athletes of the first and second teams, there were still a few guys with crude techniques who blindly rushed forward relying on talent, who also always could not change these bad habits.

The various coaches looked at each other, and then all looked toward Wang Pengfei.

“Pengfei, ah, has Su Yu really never received training before?”

Wang Pengfei said with righteous sternness, “Of course not!”

He began to describe to the various coaches his initial impression of Su Yu. “You all just don’t know. At the very beginning, this Su Yu was so fragile it was called ridiculous. Right on the very first day of our opening, during the morning warm-up run, this Su Yu lagged in the very last place. When he ran the whole distance, I saw his face was pale as if he had lost half his life.”

“As a result, guess what happened?”

“My Brother Pei actually took a fancy to him at that very time!”

Although Wang Pengfei looked a bit silly, his expression ability was not bad, completely recounting the full thought process of how Pei Dingshan took a fancy to Su Yu and judged Su Yu’s talent to be excellent that day.

The coaches present until this moment finally could not help but sigh with feeling—one must say that Little Pei’s level is high!

Speaking of which, the coaches also looked with shining eyes one after another toward Su Yu who was not far away.

“So this Su Yu just received learning of some basic technical movements and sprint knowledge over these two days?”

“But of course?”

Wang Pengfei nodded and said, “It was all me watching from the side as he and Zhou Yu’ang received training together. His learning and comprehension of various technical movements are both extremely rapid, integrating and mastering them very quickly, though I also hadn’t thought before that he could apply them to an actual test so quickly.”

The coaches smiled upon hearing this.

Who could have thought of this?

Two days of basic technical learning and training directly dragged this Su Yu’s 100-meter result from not entering 17.5 seconds to 14.32 seconds.

Even if this was because in the past Su Yu’s 100-meter results lacked any technical or skill bonuses, making the early progress margin appear relatively massive, this progress margin was indeed too astonishing.

“Sigh, it’s just a pity that this Su Yu’s physical conditions are truly not too good. If only his strength, explosive power, and core were stronger—leaving everything else aside, just reaching the level of ordinary boys of the same age group—this result of his could enter within 14 seconds.”

Speaking of which, the coaches one after another looked toward the direction where Su Yu was located with regretful gazes.

Through this round of testing just now, these coaches of the coaching group already understood Su Yu’s talent very well, all feeling that this child’s talent is truly not bad. The only pity was that his physical conditions were after all still a bit too poor.

“If only the physical conditions could be a bit better. With the current physical conditions, it feels very difficult to have any too good development, ah.”

Among these coaches, there was no lack of those who felt amazed by Su Yu’s talent, but Su Yu’s physical conditions still made them hold reservations regarding Su Yu’s future.

Mainly at this moment, Su Yu had just completed the 100-meter test right in front of these coaches. The state where Su Yu’s face was pale and close to collapse at the very moment the test ended obviously left a deep impression on the coaches as well.

Right at this time, Zhou Yu’ang also began his 100-meter test. Once Zhou Yu’ang stepped onto the testing track and crouched onto the starting blocks with both hands supporting him on the ground, the coaches who were originally discussing also placed their attention onto Zhou Yu’ang.

“If one truly has to say it, Zhou Yu’ang is also very not bad.”

“Yes, just from physical conditions alone, that child Zhou Yu’ang still occupies an absolute advantage.”

“Right, and technically he’s not bad either. This child still has a lot of passion for sprinting, possessing talent, passion, and a relatively outstanding technical learning ability. I think looking from future achievements, Zhou Yu’ang’s chance is still relatively larger.”

Amidst the talking, the starter on the testing track had already given the “Set” instruction sound. The testing trainees in this group were obviously stronger in strength, perhaps counted as the elite trainee group of this summer camp. Both Zhou Yu’ang and Jiang Yuan participated in the test in this group.

The very moment the starting pistol sounded, the reaction speed of the trainees in this group was obviously faster by a few margins.

But even among the elite trainees in this group, Zhou Yu’ang’s performance was also particularly prominent. His explosive power was extremely powerful, and from the very instant of pushing off and starting to explode, he obviously opened up a gap of at least one body length compared to the surrounding opponents.

Following the speed foundation established during the starting explosion phase, right to the fierce explosion during the acceleration phase.

“Not bad, the acceleration ability is very strong.”

“Technically it’s still a bit crude, and basically it’s not too stable.”

“The starting technique is not bad, but the connection phase between the start and acceleration is a bit stiff. The prototype of the overall technique is there. It’s just that it still has to be ground down.”

The coaches said so with their mouths, but the satisfaction with Zhou Yu’ang’s performance on their faces was obvious. Just like what they had said before, regarding the selection of prospects in this age group, the coaches would not force the technical merits or faults of these little prospects—anyway, once they entered the provincial team, they all had to start grinding anew from the beginning.

Once Zhou Yu’ang finished running, the result of 11.83 seconds not only stood out completely among all the trainees, but it even made the coaches present nod their heads continuously with smiles of admiration all over their faces.

“Previously during the provincial middle school student sports meet, Old Zhang from the Bureau of Education mentioned it to me, saying that No. 7 High School in our city had a not bad good prospect, which is this Zhou Yu’ang. But at that time our youth group was busy rushing for the qualifying match of the World Championships, so I didn’t go to understand the situation first. Looking at it now, it’s instead a bit of a pity.”

Beside the track, the coaches also made slight comments regarding the testing trainees in this group.

It should be said that this group was indeed worthy of being the elite group. The results of the eight testing trainees in total were basically all within 13.50 seconds. Among them, the best result was Zhou Yu’ang’s 11.83 seconds, and the result of a trainee ranked second was also at 12.26 seconds. This result in fact also ran into the standard of a national third-level athlete.

For this test match, Su Yu was similarly watching from the side. Aside from Zhou Yu’ang, Jiang Yuan’s result was actually also very outstanding—ranking third in the group, with a final result of 12.89 seconds, which had already squeezed into the 13-second barrier.

Contrasting his own results against those of Zhou Yu’ang and Jiang Yuan, Su Yu silently pursed his lips.

—Sure enough, compared to true geniuses, his result is still far from enough.

On the track, Zhou Yu’ang and Jiang Yuan, who had already completed the test, walked together toward Su Yu. Zhou Yu’ang gave a hehe smile toward him. “How about it, little ancestor? Your brother and I didn’t lose face for our dormitory 303, right?”

Su Yu glanced at him, ignoring Zhou Yu’ang who was smiling with a radiant face full of sunshine.

Jiang Yuan instead raised his hand to rub Su Yu. “How is your condition now? Recovered, right?”

Su Yu gave a muffled response of “Mm.” For today’s 100-meter test, he had already exerted his full strength, and the final result was already the best result he could currently achieve.

He was just still feeling a bit annoyed about his current bodily state.

Jiang Yuan rubbed his hair and smiled. “Our Xiao Yu is sure enough a genius—in just a matter of two days of time, the result enhanced by more than 3 seconds! Once the summer camp ends, there’s no telling how much your 100-meter result will enhance!”

Su Yu furrowed his brow and dodged away from Jiang Yuan’s hand, saying in a muffled voice, “I am not a genius.”

Hearing these words on the side, Zhou Yu’ang immediately chimed in, “Eh? That won’t do. Who says our little ancestor isn’t a genius! Even if Xiao Yu you say so yourself, I won’t accept it, ha!”

Speaking of which, a pair of Zhou Yu’ang’s big hands was also placed with a smile onto Su Yu’s head for a burst of safe-handling and spoiling.

Being annoyed by him, Su Yu slapped away his hand with a claw, and even glared at him fiercely, but Zhou Yu’ang didn’t mind in the slightest, even giving a hehe smile on the side wanting to blow rainbow farts for Su Yu, though in the end he was still pinned down by Jiang Yuan.

After the overall opening test of that day ended, when Pei Dingshan returned to the coaching group office, the coaches of the sprint group were also still staying inside the office. Upon seeing Pei Dingshan, they started discussing with him—

“Little Pei, that good prospect you took a fancy to is Su Yu, right?”

“Yes.”

“We also observed this Su Yu’s situation. In sprinting, he indeed possesses a lot of talent and comprehension power, and his body elasticity conditions are also not bad. But Su Yu’s physical conditions are truly too poor—just with this stamina state of his, he has to rest after running a preliminary match. When it comes to the semifinals and finals, will he still have the stamina to run?”

“Yes, even if stamina can be enhanced, the basic conditions are right here. Truly waiting until the technique is in place, this of his is also just a one-time stamina. If the match schedule is just a bit tight and a relay is added on top, his body cannot possibly hold out.”

“Looking at it overall, Zhou Yu’ang’s conditions will still be a bit better.”

Pei Dingshan, who had entered inside the office, quietly finished listening to the coaches’ suggestions. These suggestions were indeed out of well-intentioned reminders. Pei Dingshan did not refute them one by one, but rather only said one sentence calmly after listening to all the suggestions completely: “If one must definitely choose one of the two between these two trainees, Su Yu and Zhou Yu’ang, I will only choose Su Yu.”

This incomparably certain answer made the coaches who were still raising suggestions just now instantly fall silent.

Everyone looked at each other. They knew Pei Dingshan thought highly of Su Yu, but they did not know he thought this highly of Su Yu.

“This…”

The coaches did not know what they should say further for a moment. Instead, Pei Dingshan spoke in a gentle tone, “How about this—for today’s opening test, after all, Su Yu has only truly received training for two days of time.”

“Wait until the closing test match 38 days later, you all can look at Su Yu’s performance at that time again—perhaps at that time, everyone will have different opinions.”