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

Chapter 227-228

Translator: dapotaturs

Release Date: 10/09/2023

Chapter 227: Men's 400-Meter Final

Unlike the preliminaries, semi-finals, or some track and field events, the organizers of the Doha World Championships had designed separate grand entrances for almost every competitive event's final.

After the live broadcast announced the start of the men's 400-meter final, the overhead lights in the audience stands were quickly extinguished. The only remaining sources of light around the spectators were the dim floor lamps in front of each seat.

The lights on the track were also completely turned off. Soon, ten light strips on the field were illuminated. These light strips were embedded on the edges of the nine circular tracks. They emitted a rhythmic, breathing-like pattern of light, illuminating the entire field.

Accompanied by the breathing-like light display, cheers erupted from the audience stands. It was time for the athletes to enter the stage for the men's 400-meter sprint final!

As expected, after a series of brief breath-like flashes of light, the specially decorated entrance for the final athletes was opened by the ceremonial attendants. Along with the most dazzling colorful lights, the first athlete of the men's 400-meter final made his entrance!

In the live broadcast, the local announcer in Doha energetically introduced the first athlete to enter the stage for the men's 400-meter sprint final, Fraser from Jamaica.

"Let's welcome the first athlete to take the stage – Fraser from Jamaica!" After the excited elongated announcement, there followed a career introduction of Fraser and an overview of his performance in the preliminaries and semi-finals of this World Championships.

Back in China, Shao Minyi was simultaneously introducing Fraser's background: "This 400-meter star from Jamaica has performed quite well in the preliminary and semi-final rounds of this World Championships. He recorded 45.01 seconds in the preliminaries and 44.66 seconds in the semi-finals, securing his place in the finals quite comfortably."

Fraser had been placed in the second lane for tonight's final, which wasn't considered a very advantageous position.

After Fraser's entrance, the remaining seven finalists also made their appearances one by one. They were Tekawu from Trinidad and Tobago, Jipu Ruto from Kenya, Fernandez from the USA, Le Clos  from South Africa, Gardiner from the Bahamas, Morris from Grenada, and Zhang Ziyi from China.

During this entrance ceremony, each athlete had approximately one minute of spotlight time and introduction. After all eight athletes had made their entrances, more than ten minutes had passed.

As each athlete entered, the lights on their respective lanes would also illuminate. When Zhang Ziyi entered, the lights on the ninth lane came on. The viewers in front of their TVs let out a sigh but continued to watch the live broadcast with earnest attention, silently cheering for Zhang Ziyi in their hearts.

In the semi-finals, Zhang Ziyi achieved a new personal best with a time of 44.81 seconds, but this time, which was close to the Asian 400-meter record, only secured him the second position among the remaining athletes, allowing him to advance to the final.

His semi-final time placed him last among the eight finalists, so drawing the ninth lane for the final was a quite normal result.

Zhang Ziyi smiled and waved to the audience amidst the dazzling spotlight on the scene. He then followed the directions of the event staff towards the starting line on his ninth lane.

In the eighth lane to his left was Tekawu from Trinidad and Tobago, and in the seventh lane was Jipu Ruto from Kenya. Interestingly, these two athletes had finished first and second in his semi-final group.