Sprint: This champion is a bit weird

Chapter 212 The curtain opens!

As the World Championships approach, Osaka, a neon city located in the Seto Inland Sea of ​​Kansai, becomes more and more lively.

Especially in Higashisumiyoshi District, where the Nagai Land Arena is located, the main venue of this World Championships, the flow of people is even hotter.

The initial ticket sales for this year's Osaka World Championships went very smoothly. When Wenhao arrived in Osaka, all 8.25 tickets on the first day (5.6) were sold out.

第二日（8.26）的门票也在22日售罄，根据中国海关统计的数据，8月20~24日期间将约有3万名中国游客飞往大阪，他们当中绝大多数人的目标都只有一个——前往现场观看大阪世锦赛。

With Wen Hao + Liu Xiang’s ticket appeal, even if Neon athletes (especially hammer throw Olympic champion Koji Murofushi) performed poorly at this World Championships, the Neon people’s desire to watch the game has dropped significantly. On the 26th (men’s 100m final) And tickets for the 31st (men's 110-meter hurdles final) are definitely in short supply.

For any sporting event, the attraction of superstars to the audience is irreplaceable!
On August 8, the Osaka World Championships Organizing Committee cooperated with Neon's most influential "Yomiuri Shimbun" to launch a carefully printed special edition of the Osaka World Championships.

In this special issue, four super highlight events and six track and field "superstars" are re-introduced.

These six superstars and their projects are:

Men's 110-meter hurdles world record holder (12 seconds, 87, New York), Chinese star Liu Xiang;
Women's 5000m world record holder (14 minutes, 16 seconds 63, 2007.6.15, Oslo), Ethiopian star Marcelit Defar;

Women's pole vault world record holder (5.01 meters, 2005.8.12, Helsinki), Russian star Yelena Isinbayeva.

The above three highlight projects and representative superstars can all be said to be recognized as "invincible", but problems also arise -

There are obviously four highlight events and six "superstars". Liu Xiang, Defar, and Isinbayeva occupy three events. Is it possible that there are three superstars in the remaining event?
This is indeed the case.

The last event is the most popular men's 100 meters in track and field events, with Wen Hao, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay all included.

理由很简单，文浩虽然是目前的男子100米世界纪录保持者，但9秒76的世界纪录也只比阿萨法·鲍威尔的前纪录9秒77快了0.01秒而已。

Moreover, Asafa Powell ran a time of 05 three times in 06 and 9. Although he did not perform well this season due to injuries, at the Stockholm Grand Prix in early August, he A good time of 77 seconds announced his return to form.

As for this year's U.S. champion Tyson Gay, although his personal best so far is only 9 seconds, people still remember that at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, he chased Wen Hao in the super race. A strong performance of 84 seconds under wind speed conditions.

The men's 100-meter event has the highest level of discussion participation, and many experts immersed in sports science pointed out: In terms of current performance, the gap in hard power between Wen Hao, Powell, and Gay is very small, so the World Championships It makes sense whoever wins the game in the end.

Based on the coexistence of the three heroes in the men's 100-meter event, Liu Xiang became the C position of the special issue of this World Championships. In an article titled: "Let's wait for the great moment to come", the editor-in-chief of "The Yomiuri Shimbun" even mentioned Liu Xiang compared it to a "world record hunter".

Wen Hao was completely indifferent to the fact that Liu Xiang occupied the C position in the special issue.

Although he has indeed surpassed Liu Xiang in terms of popularity, in terms of honors and achievements, Liu Xiang is obviously more dominant in the 110-meter hurdles.

As for himself, he is currently unable to exercise absolute dominance over the men's 100-meter event.

But it doesn’t matter, my time will eventually come.

On the morning of August 8, a piece of news "Powell was drunk and drunk in preparation for training, focusing on three goals for the World Championships" once again aroused people's attention.

The reason was that in an interview with the media, Asafa Powell told the media about a magical night he experienced in Neon, in order to prove that with his excellent physical fitness, he is still the fastest man in the world.

Starting from last Tuesday (August 8), the Jamaican track and field team began their preparation trip in the neon western city of Tottori.

Powell said he spent six hours "getting drunk" at three different bars last Saturday night and did not return to his station until 6 a.m. the next day. But four and a half hours later, he appeared on the training ground again.

Powell said that he was basically not affected by the nightlife at night and trained for an hour as usual. However, what is interesting is that when he attended the press conference in Jamaica at noon that day, he was 13 minutes late.

He introduced his experience that night like this: "I went to a small fast food restaurant, a bar and a club in turn. I can't remember their names clearly. I mainly wanted to see what this neon city looked like. But in the end I had a lot of fun.”

At the same time, he also seriously expressed his hope to win his first World Championship gold medal in Osaka, defeat his strong rivals - Chinese Wen Hao and American Tyson Gay, and regain the 100-meter world record stolen by Wen Hao.

When the media asked what kind of results he could run if he were in his best condition, Powell said he didn't know, but the only thing he knew was: "I just want to enjoy my own game."

It’s not uncommon for sports stars to be exposed in the news, but it is indeed very rare for Asafa Powell to openly admit to the media that he was drunk and partying.

Based on this hotly debated report, many news giants immediately turned to Wenhao and Tyson Gay, hoping that they could express their opinions on Asafa Powell's drunken behavior and arrogance.

Tyson Gay was as calm as ever. He told the media how difficult and boring he was during his preparations for the World Championships, showed a photo of his eldest daughter Trinity, and said in an extremely solemn tone that he would definitely defeat all strong enemies. Defend the honor of the U.S. track and field team to the death on the field. Compared to Tyson Gay, Wen Hao’s interview has become much more interesting.

Because anyone who knows him knows that although he works really hard in training, he also really has a lot of fun outside of training. Ever since he became famous, he has been having sex with a certain female star from time to time. Scandal.

During the interview, the views expressed by Wen Hao were based on the relationship between Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay.

In his opinion, after experiencing boring and hard training and competition, athletes really need to find other comfortable ways to relax their tense body and mind.

But the premise is that there is no competition or training plan for the next day. If it is before or after an important competition, or it is a continuous high-intensity training period, athletes should restrain their desires and devote themselves to it.

Work hard when you should work hard, relax when you should relax, and never delay the next day's competition, training, or other schedules because of your greed for pleasure.

The content of Wen Hao's interview has received unanimous praise, but compared to the views he expressed, people are actually more concerned about several questions that he did not answer directly during the interview:
"Of these female celebrities who have had scandals with you, which one is your girlfriend?" 』

"Isinbayeva said that she likes men like you very much. Will you date her during the World Championships?" 』

"S1 Agency has expressed its willingness to pay a lot of money for you and Mr. Aang to make a film."

On August 2007, 8, at 25:7 Beijing time, the men's marathon event officially fired, and the Osaka World Championships officially kicked off!
Although the gun was fired at 7 a.m., as time gradually passed, the temperature and humidity in Osaka soon reached a level that made it difficult for all marathon runners.

In the end, only 61 of a total of 57 participants completed the race. The winning time of Kenyan Luke Kibet was only 2 hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds, creating the worst marathon winning time in previous world championships.

While the men's marathon event is ongoing, the preliminaries of some events are also starting in Changju Land Arena.

At the same time, after a period of marathon review and subsequent inventory of famous players, CCTV Sports Channel finally switched the camera and transferred the screen to the Nagai Arena in Osaka.

For international world competitions such as the World Championships, CCTV Sports Channel will definitely send a team to the host venue to provide on-site commentary and broadcast.

At 8 o'clock on August 25th, Yanjing time, a voice familiar to domestic track and field fans came from the TV:
"CCTV, CCTV, hello viewers, this is the competition site of the 2007 IAAF Osaka World Championships. I am the commentator Yang Jian. Next, I will bring you the live commentary of the World Championships. 』

"The temperature in Osaka has been very hot these days, but no matter how hot it is, it can't stop the athletes from being courageous and challenging their limits. What will be held next in the stadium is the men's 100-meter preliminaries that everyone is most looking forward to! 』

"In this year's Osaka World Championships men's 100-meter event, the Chinese track and field team sent a total of three athletes to participate. They are the current world record holder Wen Hao, the glasses flyer Hu Kai, and the one who ran 7 seconds in France in July to reach A Guangxi player Lao Yi is the target

As Yang Jian's commentary continued, the TV camera suddenly turned and the picture slowly passed over the 100-meter straight track. It was clear that a total of nine runners were running or strolling on the track.

"On the current field, the players in the first group are preparing for the game, and in this group of games there is an American star that everyone is paying close attention to - this year's U.S. Championship champion Tyson Gay! 』

"Tyson Gay is in lane 8, 35-year-old neon veteran Nobuharu Asahara, who has returned from injury this year and has performed well, is in lane 1. In addition, there is Paris World Championship champion Kim Collins in lane 9. 』

While the first group of the men's 100-meter preliminaries was about to begin, Wen Hao had just arrived at the inspection office for inspection.

It's not that he was too lazy, but that he was placed in the last group.

In the men's 100m preliminaries (first round) of the Osaka World Championships, a total of 71 athletes participated, divided into 8 groups to compete.

The rules are that the top three in each group will advance directly, and the 24 players will directly advance to the rematch (second round) this evening, and then the 8 best results will advance.

The four-gun schedule may seem tiring, but in fact, for players of Wen Hao, Powell, and Gay's level, they only need to show their warm-up state in the preliminaries and semi-finals to cope with it.

However, relatively speaking, the intensity of competition between the semi-finals and finals on the second day was actually slightly higher than that of the three-gun system.

Before Wen Hao, Lao Yi and Hu Kai had already entered the waiting room. They were in the third and seventh groups respectively.

In the mission statement of the General Administration and the Competition Management Center, Lao Yi's mission is to advance to the semi-finals and get at least the top five in the group, while Hu Kai's mission is to advance to the semi-finals.

The test of the World Series is now before them!
The curtain opens!

　There is another chapter tonight

　　
　
(End of this chapter)