Run Out of My Life

"Hi Su, I'm very happy to hear that you will be coming to Europe to compete. But I'm sorry, my training will be very busy, and I may not be able to see you. You know, I just joined our country's women's hockey team, and the coach said I'm doing well and have a chance to get promoted from reserve to full-time. I love hockey and I'm very eager to win gold at the Athens Olympics in the summer. Best wishes You can do well indoors. - Ellen"

…

There was a knock on the door.

While Su Zu finished reading the email, Li Zhizhong pulled a suitcase, pushed the door and walked in.

"Are things packed?" After entering the door, Li Zhizhong glanced at the furnishings in Su Zu's room and asked.

"It's almost there." Su Zu turned off the computer, got up and cleaned up the desktop, and unplugged the power outlet.

, the two pairs you are used to, don't forget. You may not be able to buy the right one when you go abroad."

The spikes in the track and field team are basically sponsored by a sporting goods company. The significance of good spikes to sprinters is self-evident. This is one of the only equipment. The two pairs of spiked shoes that Su Zu is wearing now are also carefully selected. Although it has not yet reached the point where sponsors can customize it according to his personal foot shape, he is already very used to wearing them.

And also benefited from Lao Li's conscientiousness and meticulousness, which made him benefit a lot in life and training.

Su Zu packed up the things he was going to bring, looked back at the dormitory, recalled that there should be nothing missing, locked the door and went downstairs to gather.

On February 26, the Chinese delegation arrived in Paris, France. After having a hastily meal at the airport, they took the bus arranged by the foreign affairs staff and headed to Levin.

Although this place in Levin, France is not well-known, the IAAF Golden Federation and various large and small track and field events are held here, and it is an important venue for many track and field events.

Under the arrangement of the organizer, the male and female athletes and coaches of the Chinese delegation's track and field team, as well as a group of staff members, successfully checked into the hotel, and then resumed some adaptive training due to jet lag.

On February 28th, the IAAF Indoor Licensing Tournament (Invitational Tournament) began. As the last important event before the start of the World Indoor Championships, it attracted many world players to participate. Sweden's blond Karolina Kluft and Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva are undoubtedly the two most dazzling stars of all the contestants.

"There are some great players in this indoor invitational tournament, you should pay attention later."

In the lounge of the Chinese delegation in the Levin Indoor Gymnasium, Li Zhizhong handed the list of the men's 60 meters to Su Zu and Shen Yunbao, and pointed to several names on the list.

"G...Rimes?" Su Zu looked at the English form in his hand and spelled out the name that Li Zhizhong was referring to.

"The 27-year-old Grimes is the men's 100-meter champion at the 2003 Pan American Games. He is very good." Li Zhizhong introduced it, and then pointed to another name of the competition. "There is also this Francis Obikviru, who is relatively unfamiliar to us in our country. He was originally a Nigerian, and later joined the Portuguese nationality. He was the double champion of the men's 100 meters and 200 meters in the 1996 World Youth Championships."

"This time there are a lot more masters from Vienna than last year." Shen Yunbao, who was on the side, looked at the list and said, "And this Italian Clio is also a very good sprinter. "

Compared to Su Zu and Li Zhizhong, Shen Yunbao has been in the national team for a long time, participated in more competitions, and knew more.

For these European and American track and field sprinters, most people have never heard of them, if not for the athletes who shined in the Olympic World Championships. Just like Su Zu is the owner of the 60-meter and 100-meter records in China, but he is still a nobody in the international field. Except for some people in Asia who may know him, European and American players basically know nothing about him.

"Because this year is the Athens Olympic Games, the previous major international events have attracted many outstanding athletes to participate. This invitational tournament has come to a few heavyweight players, it is estimated that the next one In the World Indoor Athletics Championships this month, there will be more outstanding athletes coming.”

Because there are many athletes participating, this time the International Indoor Invitational Tournament is a two-day schedule, with a total of 24 events for men and women. The men's 60-meter competition is scheduled on the first day of the competition, with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the afternoon.

At 10:10 a.m. local time, the men's 60-meter runners began to conduct inspections in accordance with international competition standards. It is still an inherent process. Warm up and so on.

At 10:30 am, the men's 60m preliminaries started. There are 62 contestants participating in the preliminaries of the national delegations, and they are divided into 8 preliminaries. Su Zu was the second in the third group of the preliminaries, and Shen Yunbao was in the seventh group.

Similar to the National Indoor Championships, the men's 60-meter preliminaries were also carried out very fast, with groups of players taking turns.

As soon as he entered the arena, Su Zu heard all kinds of cheering sounds of "Allez!" "BonCourage!", which was completely different from the cheers and cheers in China. feel like that.

The group preliminaries went well. Su Zu ran for 6.55 seconds and made the cut, ranking first in the preliminaries group. Compared with the players who participated in the same competition in Vienna last year, the strength of the players participating this time is two levels higher. Shen Yunbao ran a time of 6.62 seconds this time, but only ranked tenth in the group preliminaries. to the finals.

Before the 60m final in the afternoon, the runners in the inspection room were waiting in the waiting area.

"Hi man, are you Japanese?"

Su Zu was sorting out his spikes when he suddenly saw a black player running up to him and saying hello.

"No, I'm Chinese." Su Zu pointed to the national flag on the chest of the competition uniform and said solemnly.

"Oh, sorry, I see you all look the same. You know there was a Japanese at the World Championships last year, what is his name, and he took the bronze medal, it was my first time in the finals I saw a yellow race on the field. The black athlete was very familiar, grinning and showing big white teeth. Su Zu listened to the other side's English with a strong accent. I occasionally turn to the dictionary to write emails in English, but I really don’t necessarily understand them.”

"You just ran very well, 0.01 seconds faster than me, we are rivals."

"Are you Grimes?" Su Zu looked at the black man in front of him, and when he heard his grades, he finally matched the people and names. In the group Suzu ran 6.55 seconds and was the first in the group, and the second in the group was the black American player Grimes 6.56 seconds.

"Yes, it's me." Grimes imitated Su Zu and pointed to the flag on his chest, "From the United States."

The two smiled and wanted to chat a few words when they heard a reminder from the inspection staff next to the inspection room: "Please keep quiet!"

Suzu and Grimes stopped talking immediately. The IAAF still has high discipline requirements for athletes before and after the competition. When the phenomenon occurs, it is easy to be punished.

Although the two chatted briefly, there was no guarantee that they would be misunderstood.

If you want to use swear words to provoke opponents like basketball and football, at least on the court, it will not work at all. This is one of the reasons why, over the years, it has been rare to see a direct spat between competing athletes in the track and field.

After waiting in the inspection room for a while, the eight finalists followed the lead staff and walked into the track of the indoor stadium.

"Set."

Familiar preparation sounds.

The starting gun rang with a "pop", and the IAAF indoor men's 60-meter final began.

In such a large-scale arena, Su Zu also used the most familiar 60-meter running method, without making any reservations, as soon as he ran, he went all out.

In the domestic arena, Su Zu almost has an absolute advantage now, but in the international arena, running together, you will find that all the players are strong. Whether it is the starting reaction or the starting acceleration, it has greatly exceeded his expectations.

The American player Grimes and the Portuguese player Obik Viru, who are on the track around him, are almost on the same level as him from the beginning to the end. Every athlete here is basically the top domestic player sprinter, champion of all competitions. It is only a thin line from the players of the world's super-class level.

Running all the way to the last 50 meters or so, Su Zu was able to open a little gap with a slight advantage.

"6 seconds 53!"

Besides the arena, Li Zhizhong jumped for joy when he saw the result. The accompanying athletes also cheered and applauded.

Another champion.

Although the weight is not heavy, no matter what, this is an international event.

In the broadcast of the conference venue, the French live host was full of surprise and passion.

"The champion of the men's 60m final is Su from China!"

In Levin Stadium, spectators and athletes of all colors also applauded at this time.

On the other side of the court, a very strong black man also showed a smile of interest after watching the final of the 60-meter final.

"Crawford, what are you looking at?" Behind the sturdy black man, an imposing white man in a suit and leather shoes was rushing over from the long jump competition area.

"Mr. Horner, Grimes didn't win the championship at this level and was taken away by a Chinese player."

"Oh?" The white man in a suit named Horner was slightly surprised, "China's track and field level has improved rapidly in the past two years. There is already a Liu in the short span event, and now the sprint is out again. Got one?"

"Today's competition I found that the Russian athletes are also very strong, the track and field is still too unpopular in the United States, and it is not attractive enough to outstanding athletes. Crawford, next month's competition In the indoor world championships, I hope you can win gold, and after participating in this competition, you will have to return to China to prepare for the Olympic trials in the United States."