Born to Run

Rakvere.

A small town in northern Estonia, 20 kilometers south of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.

This small town has a long history. The signs of human settlement can be traced back to the 3rd to 5th century AD. Because of its geographical location, it has been ruled by many countries and baptized by wars.

With the independence of Estonia in World War I and the end of World War II, this small town, like most other European towns, has some of its own landmarks and features, but among the many towns in Europe, Unremarkable.

On August 3, 2010, this little-known town in Europe ushered in a rare excitement.

Rakvere Town Stadium, with lights and festoons outside, and various colorful banners fluttering. Early in the morning, many local residents who moved by the wind had gathered here.

Some foreign tourists who happened to pass by here were attracted by the excitement and also came to the town stadium. After arriving, many people discovered that there was a track and field match in this small town stadium today.

A track and field exchange tournament held by Estonia and Finland. The level of the competition is not high. It can be regarded as a regional competition. The main venue of the competition is to tour between the cities of the two countries. The main purpose is to promote the promotion of the two countries. The atmosphere of track and field selects track and field talents and also attracts some outstanding international athletes to participate in the competition.

Today, the track and field tournament of the two countries happened to come to the small town of Rakvere.

A Volkswagen passed through the streets of Rakvere, avoiding pedestrians all the way, and quietly stopped at the aisle of the temporary parking of the stadium in Rakvere.

The noise from the outside came in from the half-open car window. A tall, sturdy black young man sat in the back seat. After the car stopped, he did not get out of the car immediately, but sat quietly on the seat. Listening to the shouts coming from the stadium in the distance.

"Man, it's time to get off!"

The driver of the car turned his head. It was a local Estonian young man speaking English with a strong accent, and he spoke to the young black man in the back seat and another middle-aged black man sitting next to him.

"Let's go!"

The middle-aged black man stretched out his hand and gently patted the black youth's shoulder, his tone seemed to be encouraging.

"OK!"

The black young man took a breath, nodded, opened the door of the car, and got out of the car.

It seems that because of coming out of the small rear space of the vehicle, the black young man seemed to hear a louder shout from the town stadium that seemed to him a little rudimentary the moment he got out of the car.

With these shouts, the black youth's heart beat fiercely twice, and the muscles all over his body seemed to be slightly tensed.

It was a long-lost feeling.

It’s been a long time since the young black people could hardly remember where they felt like this last time.

The young black man looked at the track and field stadium in the distance, then turned around, walked to the trunk of the car, and took a luggage bag from the middle-aged black man.

The color of the bag is a bit old. He bought it years ago. It used to be accompanied by a track and field stadium, but it has been in the dust for a long time.

The driver with the weird accent leaned his head out of the front seat after the two of them had taken the luggage, and said in a weird accent, "Good luck", after which the car started again and left in the distance.

The young black man reached out and hung the unilateral strap of the luggage bag on his shoulder, unzipped and took out a baseball cap and put it on his head. There was also a pair of sunglasses he had prepared before. His fingers ran across the sunglasses box. Finally Still did not take it out.

No need, is it?

The corners of the black young man's mouth curled up, and a faint hint of self-deprecating appeared.

Having been away for so long, and the whole world has developed and changed so quickly, he has probably already been remembered by others!

"However, I am back after all!"

The self-deprecating expression on the black youth's face flashed past, and his expression soon recovered, but his eyes were extremely firm.

"Time is running out, do you remember the process?"

The middle-aged black man next to him had already walked a few steps towards the stadium, and suddenly looked at the black young man who seemed to be standing in a daze. He turned his head and laughed jokingly.

"of course."

The black young man nodded his head blankly, without too much thought of joking, but silently followed the middle-aged black man and walked towards the stadium. There was still a word in his heart that he didn't say.

"I may forget everything, but I will definitely not forget the stadium and the track."

...

"It's him?"

"Damn it, why did this man come here?"

"real or fake?"

"Isn't he banned for life?"

In the check-in area of ​​the stadium, when the black youth changed into a sprint suit and appeared, there were instant whispers.

Some are deliberately spoken in English, but also in local Estonian and Finnish.

The black young man carefully pressed his legs and stretched the joints of his muscles on his own. He knew what it meant when he could understand other people's discussions, and he could understand what he could not understand when he looked at these people's eyes.

If the local driver couldn't recognize him when he came to the stadium just now, the people who are about to participate in the race here will definitely recognize him.

However, these people said that the content of the discussion is not necessarily so pleasant.

No one came up to greet him. The athletes present were very young, and some might even be ten years old from him.

He stood here, when he appeared in such a low-level arena, he was already an old guy!

"Your world record of 9 seconds and 77 ties in Doha has been cancelled!"

"The penalty for you has come down, and you have been suspended for eight years! If you don't accept it, USADA will most likely suspend you for life!"

"Eight years is too long. I was thirty years old at that time. What's the difference between this and a lifetime ban."

"There is still a chance. If you accept the punishment and achieve cooperation, you will have the opportunity to appeal later."

"The CEO of the hearing sympathizes with your experience. In view of your good attitude and the fact that your incident is directly related to you for the first time, the arbitration team reduced your punishment to four years! "

"Who do you think you are? World champion? You are a pot of medicine."

"You haven't played rugby since the tenth grade!"

"Sorry, your trial failed!"

...

A vague memory flashed in his mind, and he took a light breath. The game hadn't started yet, so he tried his best not to think about the past.

"Don't put any pressure. This is a very ordinary game. There are not many reporters who usually come to the scene. When we leave here after the match, no one will care."

The middle-aged black man walked over and comforted the black youth in a low voice, "All you need to do now is go for a run!"

"Loren, I'm not a rookie."

The black young man slowly raised his head, with a rare smile on his face.

Although he was the one being comforted, he used words and eyes to comfort the middle-aged black in front of him.

Loren Seagrave, this is his new coach.

A lot has happened in the past few years!

From the distant United States to Europe, Estonia, to participate in such a low-level event, this is Loren Seagrave's preparation for him.

Here, the participating players should be able to recognize him, but probably...not many people who come to the audience know him.

The audience are forgetful!

What they are chasing after is Yechin, Youssé Bot, Jason Gaby... he is already a past tense.

Therefore, the possible pressure can also be less.

Falling from the peak to the trough is probably only a matter of a moment, but from the trough to the peak, this road will not be so easy.

Time passed by every minute and every second.

Soon, after completing the pre-match preparations, he heard the preparations for playing.

"Come on!"

Loren Seagrave patted him on the shoulder again, and said nothing else.

What should be done has been done, what should be said has been said, and the rest needs to be faced by himself.

The weather in the town of Rakvere is fine today, the sun is shining, and the temperature is neither high nor low.

A women’s 100-meter race in the stadium just ended. It was a young female athlete from Estonia who won the championship, which drew cheers and applause from the audience.

The level of the competition is not high, but for the residents of this small town, it is still very happy to be able to see a wonderful track and field event at their doorstep.

After the women's 100m race ended, a list of men's 100m contestants appeared on the big screen installed especially for this tour.

"Who is that?"

"An American came here to participate in the game!"

"Probably a newcomer!"

In the audience, many people noticed the list of players, saw a player marked with the American flag, and yelled one by one.

This kind of low-level tour has many players from other countries to participate, but in general, it is mainly composed of players from some European countries around Estonia and Finland.

American sprinters appear in European competitions, at least at the track and field Grand Prix level, and rarely appear in such regional low-level events.

After all, as a big track and field country, there are enough track and field events in the United States every year, as well as various events in Central America. Especially in sprint events, the level of competition in the Americas is much higher.

It's just that this doubt didn't last long. Soon, many viewers noticed the American athlete who appeared on the men's 100-meter starting line.

Some people don't know, but gradually, more and more people recognize it.

I don't know where to start, there is a boo.

Fierce shouts sounded from time to time, and a few even got up from the auditorium, excited young people yelling "Get out, you are not welcome here!"

Of course, more on-site audiences are in fact still sitting on the sidelines.

They just watched the game, not real track and field fans, and didn't care too much.

Standing in front of the starting line, the black youth habitually walked more than ten meters on the runway, then returned to the starting line to adjust their emotions.

He heard boos and screams, but he didn't care.

He has imagined the scene of his return to this runway many times, whether it is cheers or boos...

Well, it's probably a boo.

However, the intensity of this fierceness was much lower than he expected.

Probably because it is far away from his own country, there are not so many people he really cares about.

In fact, he knew the pressure he had to face when he started training seriously and prepared to return to track.

"Onyourmarks!"

The familiar sound of seating sounded at the scene.

"There is nothing to fear anymore!"

He slowly walked onto the approach, looked at the finish line ahead, and said to himself silently.

A game gun sounded.

Throughout the stadium, everyone had their necks lengthened and stared at the starting line intently.

I saw that among the many contestants, the black youth who looked the oldest, suddenly rushed out of the starting line.

His starting acceleration was not fast, his movements were not good-looking, and he seemed to have not adapted to the rhythm of the race, but after 50 meters, the black youth suddenly jumped up from behind.

The other young athletes in the same group tried their best to catch up, but they were getting farther and farther away!

Running ahead of them is a veteran.

But also he was once a world champion!

Even though the current state is far from the peak, the person who can beat him is not in this arena.

Cross the line!

On the live timing card, this group of men's 100-meter results appeared in front of everyone.

10 seconds 24!

A level that barely entered the semifinals in an international competition~www.ltnovel.com~ But in such a low-level competition, he has already won the championship.

The black young man bit his lip violently while looking at the results on the timer card.

This is a far cry from his peak performance, but he is still excited.

He knelt down on the runway and yelled with his head up to the sky.

"I am back!"

"I'm Jax Trin back!"

No one can understand his emotions at the moment. In four years, he has repeatedly wanted to give up sprinting, his favorite sport. After all, whether his condition can be maintained after four years is a big unknown.

His accumulated wealth before is also limited, and he can't train day after day to survive.

During his suspension, he went to several NFL clubs for trial training, but none of them died; he also returned to his alma mater in Pensacola, Florida as a track and field coach, and also worked in a stadium in northeastern Atlanta, Georgia. When a personal trainer, only experience knows that he belongs to the track.

At this moment, no one cheered for his victory!

...

On August 16, at the Ergo World Challenge in Tallinn, Jax Trin won with a time of 10.17 seconds.

On August 22, in the final match of Joensu's Finnish Elite Games series, Jax Trin defeated Jamaican Steve Mullins in 10.13 seconds and won the men's 100m championship.

On August 31, Rovereto, Italy, Jax Trin won the second place in the men's 100m race with 10.09 seconds. The first was Jamaican rookie John Blake. The opponent won with 10.06 seconds. .

One month, four games.

Jax Trin, who has been suspended for four years, returns to track!

PS: The new book "Mysterious Nightmare" needs a collection and recommendation ticket, I hope you will not hesitate to support it!