Day 5 of the World Championships in Osaka.
At this time, the climax of the hurdles begins.
It is also the game that people across the country care about most.
Many people, even those who don't usually watch games, know that there is Liu Xiang's game today.
This is nationality and national influence.
At this point, if you have not won an Olympic medal or even a gold medal, it is difficult for you to compare with Liu Xiang.
Comparing the demands for gold medals across the country, Liu Xiang himself spoke out for the first time since arriving in Osaka——
"To be honest, when I come to the Osaka World Championships, my goal is to finish in the top three. I will accept any medal regardless of color."
In fact, Liu Xiang and Su Shen discussed this and suggested lowering everyone's expectations at the beginning. Otherwise, problems could easily arise.
Especially now everyone believes that Liu Xiang must win the championship. This is the most important gold medal. Once he wins it, it can break the embarrassing situation that our track and field team has not won a gold medal in the World Championships since entering the 21st century.
You have to know that the last gold medal was won at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain.
In the following eight years, the Huazhonghuajia track and field team only won two bronze medals and one silver medal in three world championships, of which Liu Xiang contributed one silver and one bronze. Yes, but before that, Liu Xiang had not won a gold medal at the World Championships.
In addition, next year's Olympic Games is approaching, and many people hope to achieve this breakthrough of zero gold medals in the 21st century World Championships before the Olympic Games.
In particular, some media started to hype, saying that Osaka is a golden place for Liu Xiang. He has been here four or five times before and won gold medals every time.
So this time is no exception.
To be honest, this is meaningless, because there is a huge gap between OW competition and other competitions, and they are not the same.
But since everyone is willing to listen to such words, naturally they are also willing to write them.
But just because he was too fanatical, Su Shen suggested that Liu Xiang would be better off taking the initiative to cool down.
So there is this passage——
"I personally feel that my current state is similar to that of the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, the outside world's requirements for me have increased. It seems that if I don't rank in the top three, it will be abnormal. In fact, several majors in the 110-meter hurdles The level among the masters is almost the same, and it is normal for whoever loses and who wins. When I come to Osaka this time, I will go all out and take the game seriously, and that is enough."
Regarding the "Osaka blessed land" promoted by the media this time, Liu Xiang also responded, saying:
"The level of competitions in Osaka in the past cannot be compared with the World Championships. Moreover, the opponents in those competitions were not very strong, and some experts did not pay much attention to them. This time at the Osaka World Championships, everyone will go all out, and the difficulty will be much more difficult."
Yes, in this way, everyone basically has a bottom line.
Know it's not that easy.
Especially at the end, Liu Xiang said with a smile——
"This time we all came to Osaka together. We took care of each other, talked and laughed, and we were very happy. Unlike the past when I went to Europe to compete alone, I felt lonely."
He actually wanted to point out Su Shen, but after thinking about it, he didn't want to give him extra attention and pressure.
If you deal with these media yourself, you will know that they are not fuel-efficient lamps.
But when you say this kind of thing, you will understand it naturally if you understand people.
Especially regarding the record-breaking aspect, he kept silent at all. Such words were like putting athletes on the fire and roasting them.
Don't agree easily.
Of course, there are also completely opposite examples, such as Trammell who lost to Liu Xiang in 2004.
He is a typical high-profile person. When he opens his mouth, he will say——
"Look at me, I will definitely break the world record set by Liu Xiang. I will continue to work hard for this!" (original words)
Well, that's very American.
It's rare for the sprint team to take a moment to breathe. After all, the track and field competition is very short and does not consume too much time. And if you have been in a tense competition atmosphere for too long, you will be mentally exhausted. "Relaxation and relaxation" and "combination of work and rest" are also an important training concept of the "Su Shen system", otherwise it would become the previous "three obediences and one major".
Coming to watch Liu Xiang compete is obviously the easiest way to stimulate excitement and relieve mental fatigue.
After all, this is indeed the most promising gold medal event for our track and field team this time.
Even in the preliminaries, the scene was crowded with people. It seemed that the Japanese people's enthusiasm for Liu Xiang was still very high.
"Wow, he is indeed Brother Xiang. With this momentum, it seems that this place has become his home court." Liang Jiahong came out and saw the whole audience shouting "Liu Xiang". He was really shocked, envious and admired.
This is Liu Xiang's influence on the world, especially all of Asia.
The first gold medal in the short distance event is indeed very exciting.
In addition, the short span event of the Japanese team originally stretched the hips, and the gap was too big. Naturally, there was no comparison, and I just wanted to cheer as an Asian.
Liu Xiang was in the second group of the group stage, on the fourth track. When the on-site commentator read his name, the audience immediately responded enthusiastically. Liu Xiang himself also smiled and raised his arms to greet everyone with his signature wave.
"Brother Xiang is so domineering! I like it so much!" Liang Jiahong and the other young team members were also inspired, and their blood began to agitate.
Bang————————
To be honest, it was too easy for Liu Xiang to win this kind of competition. Although someone jumped the gun on the first shot, Liu Xiang still rushed out with a super starting speed of 0.141. You have to know that in the preliminaries, many people can't reach the starting reaction of 0.150 seconds, and you can't consume too much attention in the preliminaries.
Liu Xiang naturally did the same, so this shot was actually his reaction speed after relaxing his reaction.
It's just too strong.
You can react so quickly even when you are relaxed.
He is worthy of being a super strong man with a 0.12x response all year round.
The competition went smoothly. Liu Xiang looked like a stag on the track, jumping over the hurdles easily, and even... in the big screen playback, you will see that he is even smiling.
During the final sprint, Liu Xiang actually imitated Su Shen and the others, turning his head and looking at the moon. Then he shortened his pace, reduced his arm swing, and won the first place in the group with a time of 13.36 seconds, easily advancing to the semifinals. .
The headwind had no effect on him at all.
In an interview after the run, Liu Xiang said specifically that he thought "looking back at the moon" was cool and fun, so he gave it a try.
Um.
It does feel good.
Sure enough, this is the benefit of reopening.
If you use it first, the trademark will automatically start to be based on you.
There's nothing you can do about it, just like Liu Xiang said, don't blame me for not being emotional. The main reason is that this action is so cool. But anyone who knows and has this ability can't help but do it.
When asked by a Japanese reporter about the performance of the Japanese players in the same group, Liu Xiang could only say awkwardly——
13.92s, well, it’s not bad, it still needs to be refueled, more refueling, well, that’s it.
It was embarrassing to dig out a three-bedroom apartment.
After all, the result of 13.92s, how can I put it, Liu Xiang can’t say that I could have achieved this result at the age of sixteen or seventeen.
Shi Dongpeng also played very well, and finally qualified in 13.22 seconds, the best time in the group stage.
In fact, if it were not for Liu Xiang, he should have glorified Asia. Unfortunately, in the same era as Liu Xiang, his achievements seemed to be overshadowed by comparison.
But what is surprising is that another "college student" who came out this time also reached the second round.
All three people were promoted, which made everyone happy.
But in the semi-finals, the situation was not so ideal. Liu Xiang obviously still had the effects of his high fever and fatigue just a few days ago. In addition, he met Robles in the semi-finals. Although Robles was still a young player, he had already shown extremely good performance. Strong momentum. His characteristics are extremely explosive power and extremely high peak. Although the peak is very short, the peak period is very strong. He once broke Liu Xiang's 12.88s, but this time, Liu Xiang has already reached 12.85s ahead of schedule. It is estimated that he and The world record is out of reach.
Bang——————
After the game started, Dutch player Sedko in lane 7 jumped the ball.
The game starts over.
After the second gunshot, Liu Xiang and No. 4 Robles rushed out immediately.
Liu Xiang kept half a head on his opponent in the first 10 hurdles, but slowed down a little at the end. Let Robles go ahead.
13.25s, which made everyone feel a little regretful, but because Liu Xiang obviously gave up on purpose in the end, everyone still felt that the problem was not big. But for professional athletes, doing so is actually very likely to cause problems.
because……
Path times, may be ranked in a very poor position.
If the outer path is six or seven, that's fine. If it's the eighth path, that means the first path is empty, which is actually the ninth path, and you'll be in a very awkward position.
As long as they are professional athletes, everyone knows that if you want to win this competition, it will be very challenging to say the best, but to say the worst... the difficulty will suddenly increase a lot.
In fact, if you talk about history, many ordinary track and field fans may not understand it at all. Historically, if you look at it clearly, there is no history of winning a championship on the side track in the entire history.
In the history of track and field, it’s not just hurdles.
Therefore, if you are assigned, it will put huge psychological pressure on you.
Even after everyone prayed all night, when they saw the competition groupings the next day, everyone was still silent for a few seconds.
Then some people even started to "vomit fragrance" in depression.
Because Liu Xiang is indeed the one who is least willing to be faced by everyone, the most side channel, which is the eighth (ninth) channel.
As soon as this position came out, many of Liu Xiang's opponents became "excited".
After all, in the history of track and field, it has never been possible to win the OW competition on the sidelines.
Therefore, many people have no idea what the separation of paths meant back then.
Basically, after this event, many championship contenders thought that "Liu Xiang is out of luck."
This has never happened before in history, and you still want to do it?
Impossible.
Moreover, sprinting is different from middle and long-distance running, and the side track has a greater impact.
Suddenly, outside media, especially Reuters, the Associated Press, AFP, and Japan's local media, began to look down upon it. After all, it’s hard to inspire confidence in something that has never happened before.
Liu Xiang's team also became nervous.
Although Liu Xiang himself said that he didn't care which course he was in, his style of painting completely changed when he reached the finals.
The previous "low-key top three" remarks suddenly turned into——
"As long as I make it to the finals, I can run regardless of whether I'm ranked first or eighth. I hope to have a taste of standing on the podium tomorrow."
"I still only care about myself. No matter what others do, I just have to compete with myself."
At this time, the situation has changed, and naturally we can no longer look down on ourselves. Just like in history, Liu Xiang spoke immediately after seeing the separation, and the direction of the entire discourse completely changed.
But at this time, there are too few people who dare to stand up and speak. After all, they are all knowledgeable people and dare not speak nonsense.
The ninth path is really too bad.
But just like Liu Xiang himself always said "loneliness", how could Su Shen not understand this word in the international arena?
He is also "lonely" in the international arena.
So at this time, Su Shen, as a medal winner in the men's 100 meters at the World Championships, said in an interview in front of these foreign media————
"I believe the gold medal will definitely belong to Liu Xiang tomorrow."
"What side lane has no one won the championship?"
Su Shen smiled calmly, and said to these authoritative Oumi media who just wanted to see the flower grower's failure:
"Then take it tomorrow and you'll have it, right?"
"The ninth miracle, I believe it is red."
When Liu Xiang was preparing for the battle, he heard that Su Shen actually said this publicly, supporting him so strongly without any official or Tai Chi fights, and he suddenly felt really...
"I am not alone in my path."
This boy I met at the China Games.
Definitely the most important friend in my life.
PS: I’ll add an update today~~~~ Back then, many people probably didn’t know the meaning and environment of side lanes. It was really difficult, very, very difficult.
It’s just that we know the result now. When we didn’t know the result back then, you can imagine how much psychological pressure Liu Xiang endured.
I hope this linkage can make everyone recall that it was really not easy to win the championship back then.
Environmental pressure and physical pressure are much greater than you think.
