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

Chapter 175-176

Translator: dapotaturs

Release Date: 10/01/2023

Chapter 175: Strong Opponents in the Men's 400-Meter Relay

In yesterday's preliminaries, the teams that advanced to the men's 4x400 meters relay final were the United States, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Great Britain, Belgium, South Africa, Japan, and China. The members of these eight teams had already made their appearances one by one in the athlete's tunnel. At this moment, the first-leg runners from each team were making their final preparations on the track.

Compared to the previous day's preliminaries, the final posed a higher level of difficulty for the Chinese men's 400-meter relay runners.

China was participating in three relay events simultaneously: the men's and women's 4x400 meters sprint relays, as well as the mixed-gender 4x400 meters relay. Among them, only the women's 4x400 meters relay had advanced to the B group final, while the Chinese team had qualified for the finals in the men's and mixed-gender 4x400 meters relays.

In tonight's schedule, the events were arranged as follows: the women's 4x400 meters B group final at 17:52, the men's 4x400 meters final at 18:37, and the mixed-gender 4x400 meters final at 18:53.

The two finals that the Chinese team needed to participate in had no interval in between.

In other words, for the men's team, Zhang Ziyi and Qiu Wen, after competing in the men's 4x400 meters relay, would immediately enter the mixed-gender 4x400 meters relay final without any rest.

"Tonight's competition will undoubtedly be a significant test of physical endurance for Zhang Ziyi and Qiu Wen. They will need to run four legs at high intensity over two consecutive days, with tonight's two legs being an uninterrupted series of high-intensity sprints. Facing such a schedule, it will put their physical stamina, competitive condition, and energy allocation between the two races to the test," remarked Li Sen in the sports channel's live broadcast.

"Actually, we've mentioned before that teams like the United States and Jamaica can deploy two different line-ups due to the strong individual abilities of their athletes. In different events, they can arrange athletes from groups A and B based on their needs, allowing their athletes to perform at their best," Li Sen continued.

"For tonight's competition, the final roster submitted by the United States contains four athletes for the mixed-gender 4x400 meters relay, and none of them have any other competition tasks. This ensures that they can compete with lighter loads."

In the spectator stands, Jiang Wentao, Pei Jin'an, and Su Bai were also discussing this topic.

"Ziyi and the others have too many competition tasks on their shoulders."

As members of the national team, when the national team has competition tasks, Zhang Ziyi and his teammates must take on the tasks assigned by the national team. While the coaching staff of the national team does their best to consider the different states of each athlete and other factors when arranging their competition tasks, for competitions like the World Athletics Relays that impact important events such as the World Championships and the Tokyo Olympics, the selection of athletes cannot be taken lightly.

While the level of the 400-meter event in China has improved significantly over the past year, those who can handle relay events at such a major competition are already part of the relay teams.

"Ah, it's still a lack of talent. If we could form two lineups, the athletes would have an easier time," Jiang Wentao sighed.

Pei Jin'an shook his head, "In reality, most countries are quite similar. At most, they might have better talent depth in their reserve athletes, but for crucial events, they also need to field their top athletes."