I Wasn't Born a Champion - Chapter 8

The opening test of the summer camp was held on the third day after the opening.

When the opening test finally was about to begin on this day, compared to the summer camp trainees, the coaches of the provincial sports commission team were instead much more excited.

Especially the coaches here in the sprint group—one by one, they were rubbing their hands and clenching their fists, vowing to use their own sharp eyes today to distinguish exactly who that good prospect was that Pei Dingshan had taken under his banner on the very first day of the opening!

As for the students, what they cared more about was another question.

“Wow, have you heard? This time during the closing test match, each event will select 3 summer camp trainees to participate in the 2017 National U16 Track and Field Base Elite Match held right at our S Provincial Sports Commission Team Base!”

“???”

“What kind of competition is that?”

“This is a competition between national sports schools and the youth groups of various provincial sports commission teams. It’s not open to the public, and is held in rotation at the track and field bases of various provinces. This year, it’s our S Provincial Sports Commission Team’s turn to host it.”

“Don’t look at this competition as obscure; it’s actually the most awesome competition in the U16 level. They say the top three athletes in each event of this year’s U16 National Track and Field Championship will also be invited to participate.”

“Fuck, is it that awesome?”

On the noisy side of the training field, Zhou Yu’ang was also enthusiastically giving science popularization to Su Yu and Jiang Yuan about the gold content of this base elite match.

“This is one of the rare level-attaining matches of the U16 level that we can directly participate in, where results in the competition will be directly recognized as level-attaining results.”

“Usually, for public athletes like us who haven’t registered with the Athletics Association yet, if you want to participate in a U-series level-attaining match, you still have to participate in a Level IV event first and get a Level 2.5 score to make it…”

As Zhou Yu’ang spoke, seeing that Jiang Yuan didn’t seem to understand it very well, he explained again, “Generally, U-series level-attaining matches are all Level III events. Level IV matches are like its qualifying matches. For example, in the 100-meter sprint, you have to get a result of at least 12.33 seconds for a hundred meters in the qualifying match first to be qualified to participate in the level-attaining Level III event.”

“In short, opportunities like this that can directly guarantee entry into a level-attaining match for the trainees in the top three of each single event in the closing test match don’t come around often! Just for this, our summer camp this time is worth it!”

After listening to such a full explanation, Jiang Yuan nodded, roughly understanding the gold content of this level-attaining match, and so patted his shoulder, “Then you add oil.”

Zhou Yu’ang froze for a moment upon hearing this, just wanting to say that Jiang Yuan also had a chance, but he quickly remembered Su Yu.

Among the three of them, both he and Jiang Yuan completely had a chance to strive for the qualification to participate in the level-attaining match. Only Su Yu had completely no training foundation. Before this summer camp started, his personal best 100-meter result hadn’t even broken through the 17.5-second barrier yet, so the distance from the participation standards of the level-attaining match was truly still extremely far away.

Zhou Yu’ang also calmed down now, scratching his head a bit awkwardly.

Among the three, Su Yu originally did not participate in the dialogue of Jiang Yuan and Zhou Yu’ang, but after Zhou Yu’ang suddenly went quiet, he instead furrowed his brow slightly and looked toward Jiang Yuan.

“Brother.”

“Eh!” Jiang Yuan turned his head toward his family’s little ancestor at the very first moment.

Su Yu furrowed his brow, looking toward him with obvious unhappiness, “You go too.”

Jiang Yuan froze for a moment, not reacting to what Su Yu was saying.

Su Yu therefore furrowed his brow even a bit tighter, staring at him as he said, “Compete well in the closing match, and you go to the level-attaining match too.”

After pausing for a moment, only then did he turn his head away, saying in a stiff tone, “No need to take care of me, I won’t die.”

Jiang Yuan originally hadn’t reacted, but at this moment he finally understood what Su Yu was saying. A piece of his heart instantly softened—this kind of feeling was just like a tsundere little kitten raised from childhood who only knew how to scratch people suddenly exposing its belly for you to touch. Jiang Yuan instantly revealed a big smiling face, raising his hand to rub Su Yu’s hair, and then enveloped this younger brother he had taken care of since childhood in a big hug.

Su Yu was extremely disgusted with him, and after being hugged by him, started trying to break free within less than two moves.

“Get off!”

Seeing that Su Yu was about to turn shame into anger, Jiang Yuan immediately let go of the kid in his arms with a laugh, and said to him again, “Actually, whether I participate or don’t participate is no big deal.”

At this time, Zhou Yu’ang, who was standing on the side just now without opening his mouth, patted his shoulder, “Hey, Yuan-zi, words can’t be said that way! Have you forgotten that both I and our little ancestor are following Coach Pei for training? Our little ancestor even said before that he wants to go professional, so if you want to take care of him, can you fall behind?”

With Zhou Yu’ang saying it like this, Jiang Yuan also finally remembered that there was still such a matter, and instantly nodded his head, “You’re right.”

But after finishing speaking, Jiang Yuan himself couldn’t help but laugh again, “But Ang-zi, with this phrasing of yours, the distance from the qualifying match is still a month or so away, yet you say it like we will definitely succeed in getting into the top three.”

Zhou Yu’ang gave a hehe smile, “Well, isn’t this about confirming a goal first!”

After finishing speaking, he cast another glance at Jiang Yuan and Su Yu, “Speaking of which, the feelings between you two are truly good.”

Jiang Yuan nodded proudly, “But of course, this is my little ancestor raised from childhood!”

Zhou Yu’ang nodded amusingly, “Ah right, right, right, and still your child bride, right?”

Seeing that as soon as these words left his mouth he was going to be beaten black and blue by Jiang Yuan, Zhou Yu’ang rapidly began to shift the topic, “Hey, Xiao Yu, how is your condition today? I see it looks much better than yesterday?”

Su Yu cast a glance at Zhou Yu’ang, and then nodded his head.

After going through the training of the first two days, when waking up this morning, his condition was obviously much better than the day before—Pei Dingshan was not wrong, he needed to let his body gradually adapt to find a training volume magnitude that could both achieve the effect of exercising and yet not reach the point of injuring his body.

After yesterday’s training volume was slightly reduced even further compared to the training volume of the first day, although carrying a fatigued body to train yesterday was even more difficult than the first day, after yesterday’s training ended, Pei Dingshan personally came to help him carry out a muscle-soothing massage and relaxation. On that same evening, his condition became much better, and when getting up today, it more rarely gave his body a relaxed sense of ease.

Looking at Su Yu’s obviously improved condition, Zhou Yu’ang was quite clicking his tongue in wonder, “Awesome, Xiao Yu, you can already adapt after training for only two days?”

Su Yu ignored him. He did not feel that he recovered all that quickly.

Zhou Yu’ang put an arm around his shoulder, droning to him, “Hey Xiao Yu, don’t disbelieve what I say. Take a look, even among those people who asked for leave yesterday and didn’t participate in training, quite a lot of them still have aching backs and sore legs today…”

Right when he was halfway through these words, the training field suddenly quieted down. It turned out that a good number of coaches had already walked to the side of the training field together in a group.

Walking in front of these coaches were precisely Pei Dingshan, Wang Pengfei, and Wang Chang’an, and additionally there was another who was the head coach of this summer camp, a senior coach of the long jump and high jump group next door, Liu Wenjian.

Following the arrival of these coaches on the scene, the disciplinary leading teachers of various schools accompanying participation in the summer camp also synchronously began to order the students to quiet down.

Today’s opening test actually doubled as holding an opening ceremony as well. Liu Wenjian, as the head coach on the platform, briefly spoke a couple of words, but his lecturing time was not long either. Most of it was encouraging the trainees present to train well, strive to be able to unearth their own potential during the summer camp period, welcoming the trainees to register for the track and field team of the provincial sports commission team, and so forth.

After this brief lecture ended, the staff members who had already arrived on the scene also rapidly began to guide the trainees present to enter the rhythm of the opening test. For a time, the training field began to be flooded with various instruction sounds of “On your marks, set, bang.”

Off the field, those coaches of the sprint group who had already come to the scene long ago went together to the side of the sprint testing field as the test began, beginning to evaluate the trainees going up to test one by one.

“Is it this one?”

“Doesn’t look like it. The explosive power is ordinary, the start reaction is also ordinary, and the overall speed endurance looks like it won’t do either.”

“It’s hard to say either, just looking at that tone of Director Wang, one knows that the good prospect selected by Little Pei this time is an unexpected good prospect. In that case, excluding Zhou Yu’ang and that Su Yu, all the remaining trainees are possible!”

“Sigh, according to what you say, why is Su Yu impossible? If it were him, wouldn’t that make people even more unexpected?”

The coach who spoke previously looked around all four directions, pointed to Su Yu who was already standing behind the starting blocks preparing to begin testing not far away, and smiled, “Leaving everything else aside, just looking at this child’s thin and weak appearance, how does he look like a prospect who can practice sprinting anywhere?”

“Heh, I think it’s not necessarily so—what if it really is him?”

Amidst the talking of the coaches, Su Yu and the other trainees standing behind the starting blocks had already detoured to the front of the starting blocks under the instructions of the starter, tentatively stepping onto the front and rear pedals of the starting blocks, searching for the feeling of starting and exerting force on the starting blocks.

In fact, in this summer camp, there were quite a few trainees who had never utilized starting blocks to start. Although Pei Dingshan and Wang Pengfei had also explained starting block starting techniques during these two days of training, the time was truly limited, so the trainees who grasped the correct techniques were not considered many.

Su Yu was naturally also one of the trainees who had not learned specialized starting block starting techniques, but in his previous life after his health improved, he once had a brief learning experience during university physical education classes. Now stepping onto the starting blocks anew, he unexpectedly faintly felt a bit familiar again.

Beside the track, those who were similarly observing Su Yu were naturally also Zhou Yu’ang and Jiang Yuan. Zhou Yu’ang looked at Su Yu’s movements, bumping Jiang Yuan with his elbow, “Hey, Yuan-zi, our little ancestor’s starting posture is actually quite decent-looking, ah!”

Jiang Yuan looked at Su Yu on the field, and also nodded his head seriously, “Xiao Yu is very serious.”

Zhou Yu’ang said with a smile, “Aiya, speaking of which, you better not disbelieve me—I feel that although you shouldn’t look at how Xiao Yu looks physically weak right now, I always feel that if he truly walks professionally, he will definitely be able to run a good result in the future.”

“Really, my intuition is super accurate, just believe me!”

Amidst the talking, the starter on the field had already given the instruction sound, “On your marks, set.”

“Bang—”