Battling Wariner Again
In the world, countless people are studying Wariner's running technique. Apart from professional sports coaches hoping to learn from it, others such as university students majoring in sports-related fields and graduate students also make Wariner's running style the subject of their dissertations. Within the domestic sports system, many individuals aiming for promotion also choose to write papers related to Wariner's running technique.
Of course, there are also many people researching Zhang Guan's 100-meter sprint. However, Zhang Guan is unreasonably fast in the 100-meter sprint event, and there are no particularly commendable aspects of his technique. The research value is far less compared to Wariner.
As the head coach of the national team, Yu Zhihao has naturally seen many papers on Wariner's running technique. There are even many people who come to Yu Zhihao with their papers, hoping to get his comments. So, at least theoretically, Coach Yu Zhihao understands Wariner's running technique very well. He knows that in the second 100 meters, Wariner can improve his time by 0.5 seconds simply by adjusting his stride span.
And today, Zhang Guan has also achieved this. This means that Zhang Guan's overall time can also improve by 0.5 seconds.
"0.5 seconds! In the previous Golden League, Zhang Guan had already run under 44 seconds. If he runs another 0.5 seconds faster, wouldn't he be able to run 43.50 seconds!" At this moment, Coach Yu Zhihao involuntarily recalled the historical achievements of those who ran under 43.50 seconds.
"It seems that there are only two people in the world who can run under 43.50 seconds: the world record holder Michael Johnson and the former world record holder Reynolds. If I'm not mistaken, in the 400 meters event, there have been only five times in human history that people have run under 43.50 seconds, with Johnson achieving it four times and Reynolds once. Zhang Guan could become the third person in history to run under 43.50 seconds!"
As Coach Yu Zhihao thought about it, his hands involuntarily began to tremble.
Last year, Coach Yu Zhihao was still celebrating Zhang Guan's 400-meter run under 46 seconds; during the winter, at the East Asian Games, Zhang Guan ran under 45 seconds, breaking the Asian record in the 400 meters and making Coach Yu Zhihao excited for several days. At that time, he couldn't help but start anticipating when Zhang Guan would be able to run under 44 seconds.
However, half a year later, at the Golden League, Zhang Guan defeated Wariner and ran under 44 seconds. This rate of improvement has already made Coach Yu Zhihao extremely satisfied. He felt that Zhang Guan had already approached his limit in this event. If he wanted to progress further, perhaps he would have to wait two or three years until Zhang Guan's body reached its peak, to achieve an even faster time.
But today, Coach Yu Zhihao realized that he had once again underestimated Zhang Guan. Less than a month had passed since the last Golden League station, and Zhang Guan inexplicably mastered a new technique, a technique sufficient to allow him to run under 43.50 seconds.
"Zhang Guan is now 20 years old. In two years, at 22, he will begin to enter the golden years of an athletic career. He will definitely be more formidable than he is now. In the next Olympics, he will be the strongest weapon in our Olympic delegation! By then, you will surely shock the world!"
.....
The competition of the International Association of Athletics Federations Golden League Paris stop was held on July 7th. It conflicted with this year's Wimbledon in terms of timing. However, Sharapova lost to Maurismo in the match and stopped at the semifinals, thus ending her Wimbledon campaign, so she had time to come to Paris to watch Zhang Guan's match.
Unlike the previous Golden League stop, the Paris stop included the 110-meter hurdles event. The Golden League allows organizers to set special events, and France has a hurdling star, Duquere, so Paris included the 110-meter hurdles.
However, the biggest highlight of the Golden League Paris stop was the return of another world-record-level athletics star, American sprinter Marion Jones. She will compete in the women's 100-meter sprint.
Marion Jones is the brightest star in women's sprint events. She has broken world records in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. Her best time in the 400-meter sprint, 49.59 seconds, is also at the world's top level. Her long jump best of 7.31 meters would be enough for a gold medal at the Athens Olympics. She also plays basketball, soccer, baseball, and even joined the WNBA as a player.
In 2003, Jones and Montgomery, both world record holders, had a child, and later Jones was also involved in a doping scandal until recently when she returned to competition.
The participants in the Paris stop were obviously more numerous than in the Oslo stop. For example, in the men's 100-meter sprint, weaker athletes first competed in Group B, eliminating some athletes, and the remaining entered the main 100-meter sprint.
As the world record holder, Zhang Guan naturally did not need to participate in the B group of the 100 meters. However, this schedule is still very unfavorable for Zhang Guan. The men's 400-meter sprint was held at 17:40 in Paris time, and the 100-meter final was at 18:35, less than an hour apart. Excluding the competition and entrance and exit time, Zhang Guan had only forty minutes of rest time.
The 400-meter sprint requires athletes to expend all their energy before the finish line. If there is still a lot of energy left after running 400 meters, it proves that the athlete's energy distribution during the race was problematic. In world-class competitions, occasionally you can see athletes exhausted after running 400 meters, being carried out of the stadium.
If you run 100 meters first and then 400 meters, it's okay, after all, running 100 meters does not consume as much energy as running 400 meters, an hour of rest time can restore a lot of energy; but if you run 400 meters first and then 100 meters, the energy consumed in the 400 meters cannot be restored in just one hour.
Therefore, in the view of those professionals, under this schedule arrangement, Zhang Guan will definitely give up one event to ensure the other. If he gives up the 400 meters, then he will definitely use a more conservative running style to reduce energy consumption in the 400-meter race; if he gives up the 100 meters, Zhang Guan will certainly exert all his efforts in the 400-meter race, and then he will have no energy left in the 100-meter event.
In fact, everyone encountered this situation for the first time. Athletes had never participated in two events in a Golden League season, sprinters only ran once, so the rules never considered athletes' rest issues.
...
"Coach, I will definitely do my best this time. I won't be as careless as last time. I won't give Zhang Guan a chance!" Wariner said decisively.
At this time, Coach Hart had a confident look, nodded confidently at Wariner: "Jeremy, I believe in you. You are the strongest 400-meter runner in the world. I have never doubted this. I know you won't make the same mistake twice. And the reality is very much in our favor."
Coach Hart took the schedule and said, "The 400-meter race ends fifty-five minutes before the 100-meter sprint. Zhang Guan's actual rest time is probably only forty minutes, so he will definitely give up one event to ensure the other. Currently, it seems more likely that he will give up the 400-meter sprint, after all, he has a great advantage in the 100-meter sprint event. If it's just the 100-meter sprint, it's almost certain now that he can win all six battles."
"But Coach, Zhang Guan should be very good at recovering his strength," Wariner said.
"Yes, that's the only concern I have. Although theoretically, the possibility of recovering strength in forty minutes is not great, Zhang Guan is an athlete who is very good at creating miracles. Many so-called theories do not hold true for him." Coach Hart turned to Wariner and said seriously, "So in the upcoming competition, you still have to do your best! Don't give Zhang Guan any chance."
...
The Golden League of this station started with the 100 meters B group competition, followed by men's and women's 400-meter hurdles, then men's 800 meters, women's 1500 meters and 5000 meters, and then the 400-meter race.
In the first women's 400-meter sprint race, American athlete Richards won the championship, maintaining her undefeated streak, and ten minutes later, the men's 400-meter sprint race began.
In addition to Wariner from the American team, there was also a black athlete named Locke. This athlete had performed well in domestic competitions in the United States but rarely appeared on the world stage.
Bahamian star Brown and Canadian Taylor also participated. Since the competition was held in France, French local player Leslie Dejon also competed.
But everyone also knows that the main attraction of the 400-meter sprint is the duel between Zhang Guan and Wariner. Other athletes again become mere accompaniments, and if Zhang Guan strategically chooses to give up the 400-meter sprint, Wariner will undoubtedly become the champion.
The organizers also knew this and deliberately arranged Zhang Guan and Wariner in adjacent lanes, Zhang Guan in the third lane and Wariner in the fourth lane. These two lanes are quite prestigious in the 400-meter sprint event.
...
"The race begins!" When the commentator's voice fell, the athletes on the field had already taken several steps, and the deafening cheers rang out at the scene, half of which were for the local player Leslie Dejon and the other half for Zhang Guan and Wariner.
Perhaps due to home-court advantage, Dejon seemed very excited. His acceleration was very fast, while other athletes followed the norm without much change in running style.
Wariner glanced secretly at Zhang Guan behind him and felt that Zhang Guan's speed was similar to the last race.
"Is your speed still so fast? Aren't you going to give up the 400 meters? Do you think running under 44 seconds will definitely defeat me? Don't underestimate me. If you consume too much energy now, you may lose the 100-meter championship later. At the same time, losing both the 400 meters and 100 meters championships, you would probably be very disappointed!"
Wariner thought while adjusting, preparing to enter the straight track.
Next to Coach Hart, another American sprint coach spoke up, "It looks like Zhang Guan hasn't given up the 400 meters! If that's the case, with such high energy consumption, Powell might have a chance to win the 100 meters later."
Coach Hart shook his head, "It's just the start now, it's hard to say. We'll know after they pass the 300 meters mark whether Zhang Guan has given up the 400 meters... Oh? His stride length? It's increased so much? Is he trying to emulate Wariner's technique!"
On the track, Zhang Guan had already gained over 20 meters on the straight track.
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