I Wasn't Born a Champion - Chapter 15

At this moment, a burst of exclamations erupted from the trackside.

“Fuck, so fast?”

“Was Zhou Yuang’s start ever this smooth before?”

Whether it was the spectating summer camp trainees or the coaches on the side, surprised expressions appeared on all their faces. The trainees were surprised by Zhou Yuang’s speed—not only did it not look slow at all, but it actually felt even smoother than his past starts.

The coaches, naturally, were looking at something much deeper. Not only had Zhou Yuang, who changed his dominant power-generating leg, not failed to adapt due to such a massive technical adjustment, but even his speed had not significantly dropped. This not only demonstrated how strong Zhou Yuang’s own ability to learn and adapt to new techniques was, but it also meant that the new dominant power-generating leg might indeed be more suitable for him.

But this…

The coaches looked at one another. Didn’t this just mean that Zhou Yuang’s talent was still top-tier, making it even harder for that Su Yu to beat Zhou Yuang?!

On the track, Liao Weiwei, who was competing in the same group as Zhou Yuang, performed quite well during the starting phase. His explosive power even looked better than Zhou Yuang’s before the technical modification, allowing him to briefly take the lead for a moment during the starting acceleration phase. However, after that brief explosive phase, Liao Weiwei quickly began to show signs of running out of steam. Just as he entered the transition running phase, he experienced a rather obvious drop in speed, unable to carry his previous state further down the track.

In contrast to him, after a whole summer camp cycle of training and adjustments—although his speed in the starting acceleration phase had not yet reached its peak state from before the technical modification due to the adjustments—Zhou Yuang’s overall technique was already far more solid than it used to be. Though he lagged slightly behind in the starting acceleration phase, his excellent physical condition combined with a systematic technical overhaul meant that, in terms of personal capability, his stability alone already far surpassed Liao Weiwei.

By the trackside, Xu Ziqi was still watching the duel between Zhou Yuang and Liao Weiwei on the track, but on the field, from the transition running phase onward, Liao Weiwei’s decline gradually became apparent. Out of the corner of Xu Ziqi’s eye, he also noticed that Su Yu had already left the trackside to head to the pre-race preparation area for the second group.

He naturally knew this Little Ancestor spoken of by the Room 303 duo, Zhou Yuang and Jiang Yuan, and he also knew he was the weakest fill-in trainee in the entire camp when the summer camp opened.

He had originally been dissatisfied that he hadn’t crossed paths with Zhou Yuang in the preliminary stage, but upon seeing Su Yu, he suddenly felt that he wouldn’t mind first beating Zhou Yuang’s Little Ancestor before taking down Zhou Yuang—who would have beaten Liao Weiwei—in the finals stage.

Not far away, after completing his first round of jumps in the long jump and high jump, Jiang Yuan took advantage of the time while other trainees were still in the first round of competition to walk over toward Su Yu’s direction first.

“Xiao Yu, is your test about to start?”

“Yeah.”

When facing Jiang Yuan, Su Yu was a smooth-furred little cat most of the time; although he didn’t have the best temper, he was very easy to coax.

Jiang Yuan smiled and rubbed his head: “So what are you thinking about right now?”

Hearing this question, Su Yu turned his head to look at the not-far-away men’s 100-meter test race for the first group, which had already concluded. He watched Zhou Yuang, who had crossed the finish line in first place, smiling with a face full of bright sunshine, even waving at the two of them with a row of big white teeth after spotting his and Jiang Yuan’s figures.

Su Yu looked at Zhou Yuang in the distance silently. After a moment, he said: “I want to win.”

Listening to Su Yu’s words, Jiang Yuan froze for a moment, but the youth in front of him was still whispering in a soft voice.

“I thought I was just unwilling to accept things, so I wanted to strive hard one more time. But I suddenly feel that I don’t want to lose to those annoying guys… Brother, I want to win.”

Jiang Yuan looked at the youth in front of him. A trademark stubborn expression appeared within his beautiful features—it was the exact kind of stubbornness unique to him since childhood, when he refused to admit defeat and would insist on completing every single one of his goals and tasks even if his body was unwell.

Jiang Yuan thus recalled a sentence that Liu Wenjian had constantly emphasized while guiding him during this period of time—”A powerful desire for victory is the driving force that impels an athlete to continuously move upward.”

He then smiled and rubbed the head of the youth in front of him: “Okay, I’ll be right here watching you win.”

On the track ahead, the athletes of the first group’s test race had already finished recording their final results data, and the assistant coach in charge of officiating on-site was already summoning the trainees of the second preliminary group to assemble.

After patting Su Yu’s shoulder, Jiang Yuan signaled that his family’s Little Ancestor should step forward. Su Yu gave a muffled “yeah” and strode over to the preparation area for the second group of the preliminaries.

Very quickly, before the starting line, all 7 testing trainees were already in position. Under the signals of the on-site referee, they began to adjust their respective starting blocks. This current race was, after all, just the camp-ending test race for the summer camp. Although the state of the vast majority of the participating trainees was quite excited, they were all very relaxed. Even Xu Ziqi, who had made up his mind to first beat Zhou Yuang’s “Little Ancestor,” didn’t appear to be overly focused.

After all, in his eyes, Su Yu’s result at the camp-opening test race 38 days ago was merely a 13.32. Su Yu could perhaps rely on two days of technical correction before the camp-opening test race to rapidly and drastically elevate his result from seventeen-plus seconds to 13.32, but just like how top-tier athletes faced immense difficulties wanting to break through their results from 10 seconds to within 10 seconds, on this short 100-meter track, how could there be so many 3 seconds for him, Su Yu, to break through rapidly time and time again?

Amidst a relaxed atmosphere, only Su Yu, standing in lane three, was seriously preparing for this seemingly ordinary preliminary of the camp-ending test race.

Pei Dingshan had also stood at a spectating position outside the track at some unknown point. After observing Su Yu’s state, a faint glint of satisfaction swept through his eyes.

Among the coaches of the sprint group on the side, there were also those who noticed Su Yu’s state, letting out bursts of sounds one after another, then looking at each other and raising their eyebrows.

A coach who noticed Pei Dingshan’s appearance immediately looked at Su Yu, who had already crouched onto the starting blocks, and then looked at Pei Dingshan on the side, saying: “Xiao Pei, came specifically to watch this good prospect you fancied?”

After all, Pei Dingshan hadn’t appeared during Zhou Yuang’s group test earlier, yet now that Su Yu was taking the field Pei Dingshan came over, which inevitably caused these coaches to tease him a bit.

Pei Dingshan, however, spoke in a flat tone: “The team from G Province arrived this morning. Coach Wang asked me to help receive the team from G Province together.”

“The team from G Province has arrived?”

The coaches of the sprint group froze for a moment.

The time until the National U16 Base Tournament two days from now was very close, and it wasn’t strange for teams from other provinces to arrive successively over these few days. However, the G Province team arriving today was still somewhat special. As a nationally renowned major sprinting province, more than half of the current domestic sprint stars were outputted by the G Province team, including the young athlete Ye Minghao, who was currently claimed to have the strongest potential in the U16 age group, who also hailed from G Province.

This 15-year-old young athlete from G Province had run a result of 10.56 seconds in the 100 meters during this year’s National Youth Athletics Championships. This result had already far surpassed many adult athletes, reaching the standard for a National First-Class Athlete, and was even a mere 0.06 seconds away from entering the standard for a Master-Class Athlete.

More importantly, this result was also a mere 0.06 seconds away from our country’s U16 men’s 100-meter national record.

A single step away.

This young athlete from G Province was just about to break a record that had been held for 37 years.

At the same time, according to the coaches of the G Province youth group, Ye Minghao had already broken the 10.50 barrier in daily training. As long as his condition remained excellent, he could complete the breakthrough of this dust-laden record at any time in an official competition.

For the provincial team coaches of S Province—or rather, for any coach who wanted to bring up an outstanding athlete—this was a talented athlete whom it was very hard not to be captivated by.

“That Ye Minghao came along too, right?”

“The coaching group of G Province really has a way of screening and cultivating young athletes. I wonder if this Ye Minghao can run a record-breaking result in the base tournament the day after tomorrow?”

Everyone was talking all at once, and someone also smiled and said to Pei Dingshan: “Coach Wang must have called you out specifically to show off, right? After all, back then the provincial team of G Province also did their utmost to invite you to join, but you ultimately chose our team.”

Pei Dingshan nodded calmly, and then placed his attention onto the track ahead.

Before the starting line, the 7 athletes had already crouched onto their respective starting blocks amidst the starter’s command of “On your marks.” The preparatory movements of these trainees were now much more professional than at the beginning, but after all, the training time wasn’t long, and they each still had quite a few flaws. Among them, the ones with the most standard movements were Su Yu in lane three and Xu Ziqi in lane five.

“This kid in lane five is called Xu Ziqi, right? I heard Pengfei say this kid’s natural aptitude is also pretty good.”

“The one in lane three must be Su Yu, right?”

“His starting preparatory posture is actually considered quite standard.”

Amidst the low discussions of the coaches, the athletes on the starting line had also assumed their set positions along with the starter’s command. The vast majority of the coaches didn’t feel there was anything special about Su Yu’s starting posture, but not far away, a few unfamiliar faces who looked like young athletes noticed there was a test here, so they also gathered closer to watch the excitement.

When the eyes of one of the young athletes, who looked to be fifteen or sixteen years old, swept over Su Yu, he let out a slight sound, but before he could look closely, this test was about to officially raise its curtain.

Following the command of “Set,” the crisp sound of a starting gun rang out in a split second.

“Bang!”

This test also officially began following this gunshot!

In lane five, Xu Ziqi didn’t underestimate the enemy either. After the starting gun rang, he rapidly pushed off, exploded, drove his swinging leg forward, and rushed out quickly. However, if anyone went to check the reaction time data recorded on the starting blocks, they would find that Xu Ziqi, who seemed to have a stronger and more proactive start on the field, actually only ranked second in reaction time.

The one with the truly fastest reaction speed in this race was precisely the trainee in lane three—Su Yu.

By the trackside, those young athletes from the G Province youth team who had walked over near here to watch the excitement also revealed somewhat surprised expressions: “This reaction speed is so fast.”

Meanwhile, the attention of Ye Minghao, who was surrounded by the crowd, had already completely locked onto the body of that youth on the field. Perhaps it was an instinct of natural wildness—from this youth who was beautiful to an excessive degree, he caught the scent of an aura belonging to a formidable rival!