After Leaving the Sports Circle, I Became a Cooking God (Completed BL)

Chapter 76: Su Qian's Partners (??) & Conclusion of the National Championship

Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 09/04/2023

The national track and field championships lasted for four days, but Su Bai only had one day to observe. After ending the call with Lü Shengbin, Su Bai spread open his notebook. Throughout the day's events, he had only marked one or two names that had potential, and they were all in the 100-meter event.

Having gone through a day's worth of races, he had a rough idea of which two athletes still had potential that warranted further observation.

However, the follow-up observations wouldn't continue at the competition venue. Su Bai would return to the national team and directly contact the athletes' teams. He would request training videos, training records, race videos, and full-year performance records for these athletes. Only after reviewing all this data could he accurately and comprehensively judge an athlete's abilities and potential.

Of course, the fact that he had marked down names from the 100-meter event didn't mean that there weren't other athletes worth observing in other events. But at least, during the one day of observation Su Bai had today, he hadn't seen any standout candidates from the other athletes that would warrant an invitation to the national team for training.

After marking down the names of the selected athletes again, Su Bai's attention returned to the names of Fang Yu and Zhao Yankai.

Fang Yu's condition had noticeably deteriorated today, likely due to having invested all his energy into the Asian Games competition earlier. This had led to a significant drop in both his physical and competitive state after the intense competition.

Particularly, Fang Yu wasn't naturally an endurance-type athlete. His outstanding performance was largely due to his exceptional explosive power and acceleration at the start. Even before Su Bai retired, he had known that Fang Yu's speed endurance was poor, and his body couldn't maintain full-speed acceleration throughout the second half of the 100 meters.

Gradually surpassing the prime age of 100-meter sprinters, breaking the 10-second barrier for two consecutive years, training abroad, and then returning to China—all these factors had led to some improvement in his performance. However, he still couldn't consistently break the 10-second barrier.

All of this, along with his sense of responsibility, the expectations of those around him, and the lack of strong successors in the 100-meter event, burdened Fang Yu with immense pressure.

Su Bai could tell that Fang Yu had become adept at handling this pressure. Although he might feel disappointed by finishing only second in the preliminaries today, by tomorrow's race, Fang Yu would likely have adjusted his state. He might not achieve a particularly good result, but he should be able to regain the upper hand over Zhao Shu.

There was no other reason—everyone needed a 100-meter hero. It wasn't the time for Fang Yu to fall yet.

With these thoughts in mind, Su Bai added a focus symbol next to Fang Yu's name.

For a short period of time, relying on self-adjustment to forcibly maintain a state was fine if done occasionally. But if athletes were often forced to seek this state, it would prematurely deplete their athletic lifespan.

As for Zhao Yankai, he wasn't particularly likeable due to his arrogant and self-assured personality. He was proud and reluctant to acknowledge or accept failure.

However, at the same time, he possessed the qualities necessary for an athlete—persistence, a desire for victory, a refusal to admit defeat, and a willingness to put in the effort.