All-round Athlete

Chapter 158 The King of Track and Field: The Predecessor Appears

Last year's IAAF Japan Grand Prix detonated a doping scandal in the United States, which affected half of the track and field circle in the United States. Perhaps the outside world does not know the detailed process of this matter, but many athletes and coaches in the track and field circle have a general understanding of what happened. Deliberate concealment, including picking up robbery, etc.

Perhaps because of this incident, many track and field athletes regard Osaka as an ominous place. It is said that Chinese people are superstitious, and foreigners are even more superstitious, especially those athletes who have used doping secretly, and they dare not come to Japan to compete, so the popularity of the Japanese Grand Prix dropped instantly, and there were no well-known athletes participating this year.

In the absence of competitors, Zhang Guan easily won the championship in the 100-meter sprint event, earned a bonus and an appearance fee, and returned to China.

A week later, the IAAF Super Grand Prix in Qatar was held in Doha.

The Qataris are not short of money, and they pay a lot of appearance fees, so they still attract some outstanding athletes to participate. Of course, Zhang Guan is the biggest star of this competition, and he received the highest standard of reception.

However, there are still no well-known European and American players in this competition, and the only one who is relatively strong is American Tyson Gay. However, Gay was still a level behind Zhang Guan, so Zhang Guan won the 100-meter sprint championship again.

In addition to Tyson Gay, another player also attracted Zhang Guan's attention. He is a Nigerian player. He only ran 10.24 seconds in the game. His name is Samuel Francis. .

If Zhang Guan hadn't been born, Francis from Nigeria would have been naturalized in Qatar immediately, and broke the Asian record in the 100-meter sprint in 2007, becoming the first Asian runner to run under 10 seconds, and in 2008 Represented Qatar in the Olympic Games and ran to the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. After that, the Gulf countries that tasted the sweetness began to have a large number of naturalized athletes of African descent. There are African naturalized athletes in track and field events such as sprinting, middle-distance running, long-distance running, and jumping. After 2010, African "naturalized athletes" The "Chemical Corps" has become the main opponent of the national track and field team in Asia.

Although Francis is good and is still a Nigerian player, his appearance in Qatar obviously shows that the naturalized army of the Middle East country is coming!

...

On May 23, in Barcelona, ​​Spain, Zhang Guan and Sharapova appeared together at the awarding ceremony of the Lawrence Sports Awards.

This time, Zhang Guan was nominated for the Best Male Athlete Award, which is also the most valuable award in the Lawrence Awards, but Zhang Guan's competitors became stronger one by one.

Judging from last year's record, the car king Schumacher has become a relatively weak one in the nomination. He did not win the Formula One championship, but it is said that he will retire after this season. This kind of thing can definitely add points in the selection.

Golf player Tiger Woods entered his heyday last year. He won the Buick Invitational, Ford Championship, Masters, British Open, WGC Championship and so on.

But in comparison, Woods' performance last year is still not as good as tennis king Federer. Federer's total record last year was 81 wins and 4 losses, second only to McEnroe's 82 wins and 3 losses. Federer won a total of 11 singles titles last year, including two Grand Slam champions, four A masters series champion, the result is absolutely proud. Moreover, the Lawrence Award has always favored tennis players, and Federer has a great advantage in this regard.

But among the best male athlete nominations, the most vocal athlete is not Federer, but football player Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho led Barcelona invincible last season, not only defending the La Liga title, but also beating Arsenal to win the Champions League. Ronaldinho also won the European Footballer of the Year and World Footballer of the Year awards last year, and this time the Lawrence Award selection was held in Ronaldinho's home stadium Barcelona, ​​which added a lot of momentum to Ronaldinho.

In terms of the results achieved last year, none of the above athletes can compare with Zhang Guan. In the past year, Zhang Guan broke the world record in the men's 100-meter dash three times, broke the world record in the men's 60-meter dash twice, and broke the Asian records in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter dash. All the competitions he participated in won the championship, and there was no defeat.

This achievement has never been achieved by anyone in history. Just breaking the world record of men's 100-meter sprint three times a year is enough to sweep away other nominated contestants.

The awards ceremony finally started, and one award after another was announced. Van Dijk for the Best Disabled Athlete, Rossi for the Best Economic Spirit Award, Cruyff for the Lifetime Achievement Award are all football players, Hingis for the Best Contribution Award, and Nadal for the Best Newcomer Award are all tennis players. The best team award went to the Renault team, and the best female athlete was alpine skier Kostridge.

After the Best Female Athlete award, it's time for the Best Male Athlete award.

In the guest area, Sharapova said softly to Zhang Guan: "You have great hopes. You have already won several important awards in football and tennis, and there is no track and field event so far."

Zhang Guan nodded, then shook his head: "The chances of a football player winning the best male player are not high, and Ronaldinho is far from the reputation of Pele or Maradona. I guess Ronaldinho is not Too likely to win best male athlete. But Federer still has a good chance of winning."

"A total of four track and field female athletes nominated for the best female athlete, including Isinbayeva and long-distance running queen Dibaba, but they failed to win the best female athlete. I think the selection committee should give a total quota to the track and field event!" Sharapova spoke up.

At this moment, the award presenters began to announce the winners.

"The winner of the Best Male Athlete Award at the 7th Lawrence World Sports Awards is - Zhang Guan!"

The camera immediately focused on Zhang Guan, and Sharapova next to him gave Zhang Guan a kiss first.

Afterwards, Zhang Guan stood up, embraced Federer, Ronaldinho, Schumacher and others, and came to the stage to accept the award amidst the applause of the audience.

This Lawrence Best Male Athlete is definitely well-deserved for Zhang Guan, and Zhang Guan is also the first Asian to win the Lawrence Best Male Athlete Award, and also the fifth athlete to win this award.

The Lawrence Sports Awards have been held for the seventh time, and only Tiger Woods (twice), Car King Schumacher (twice), Tour de France King Armstrong and Tennis King Federer have won the Lawrence Best Male Athlete Award before. The four are also nominated for the Best Male Athlete Award every year. They are nominated for the Best Male Athlete in almost every session. Today, there is another Zhang Guan in this nail club.

...

After the awarding ceremony of the Lawrence Awards, Zhang Guan did not choose to return to China, but stayed in Europe, because in another week, he will rush to Norway to participate in the opening match of this year's IAAF Golden League. Sharapova also separated from Zhang Guan, and she is going to France to participate in this year's French Open.

A week later, Oslo, Norway.

Director Yu handed a list of entries to Zhang Guan, and said, "Let's have a look, this time there are people you didn't expect."

Zhang Guan took the entry list, looked carefully, and first found Powell's name, and another player from Jamaica was Michael Flatt.

"Powell's injury has healed for seven or eight months! I don't know how he is now." Zhang Guan asked.

Director Yu thought for a while and said, "In the Commonwealth Games a few days ago, Powell won the championship in 10.02 seconds, but this result has no reference value for him."

Zhang Guan lowered his head and carefully recalled that Gatlin was originally suspended in 2006, and because of this, Powell did not seem to have encountered a decent opponent in 2006. He won the championship, but he didn't achieve too high a result. Maybe the opponent is not strong enough. It wasn't until the rise of American Tyson Gay in 2007 that Powell began to compete with real strength and set a world record of 9.74 seconds.

Another Jamaican player, Michael Flatt, was directly ignored by Zhang Guan. Flatt also participated in the Athens Olympics and was eliminated in the semi-finals. His strength in the 100-meter sprint was similar to that of Kim Collins, and he was considered a first-class player. , but not to the top level.

Zhang Guan continued to look down the list, and old acquaintances Obikevilu and Kim Collins were both on the list.

"Orusoki Fasuba, Nigerian? The guy who participated in the World Athletics Championships last year?" Zhang Guan asked.

"Yes, Fasuba is two years older than you. He is the bronze medalist in the men's 4x100m relay at the Athens Olympics. He ran in 9.85 seconds a few days ago, breaking the African record for the 100m sprint." Director Yu said, He glared at Zhang Guan with a smile on his face, and continued: "He is called 'African Zhang Guan' by the Nigerian media."

"African Zhang Guan?" Zhang Guan said dumbfounded, "I didn't expect African brothers to think highly of me!"

"If it weren't for America and Europe having their own well-known 100-meter runners, maybe the 'American Zhang Guan' and 'European Zhang Guan' would have come out long ago. However, there are no famous sprinters in Australia, and maybe there will be an 'Australian Zhang Guan' in the future." Crown'!" Director Yu said with a smile.

Zhang Guan shook his head helplessly, then continued to read.

"The United States sent three people here! Sean Crawford is here? He is quite strong, on the same level as Maurice Green. And Tyson Gay is also here, Tim-Montgomery ? Montgomery? Same name? Or is it the same Montgomery?" Zhang Guan raised his head in surprise.

Director Yu nodded seriously: "Yes, that's Montgomery! The former world record holder can also be said to be your predecessor."

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