The 500-meter preliminaries are all over, and the Chinese short track speed skating team won a great victory!
Li Yuang's promotion was a bit thrilling, but fortunately the result was not bad.
Originally, Li Yan was worried that the 500 meters would not be competitive enough because Wu Da Jing did not come. Unexpectedly, all three of them advanced to the semi-finals, especially Xu Hongzhi. It was an unexpected surprise!
A total of 8 people are divided into two groups in the 500m semi-finals. No matter how the points are divided, there will always be two Chinese athletes in the same group. Unfortunately, the 500m is too short. Once the track advantage is not obtained, it is difficult to have an advantage at the start. The players are so close in strength. Under the circumstances, the possibility of Li Yuang and Ahn Hyun-soo being overtaken by outsiders in the 500-meter race is very small.
Head coach Li Yan lowered her head and looked at the results list. Unexpectedly, the best score among the three in the preliminaries was Xu Hongzhi's 40.523 seconds! Ranked second among all contestants! It seems that Xu Hongzhi should be in the second group.
Seeing the results, Li Yan subconsciously arranged her tactics and sacrificed Xu Hongzhi!
Soon after the semi-finals of the women's group, the men's group also appeared on the big screen.
The semi-finals are divided into lanes one to four: Canada's Hamelin, South Korea's Lin Xiaojun, China's Han Tianyu and Japan's Keita Watanabe.
The second group of the semi-finals, lanes one to four are: Chinese player Xu Hongzhi, Hungarian player Liu Shaoang, Chinese player Li Yuang, and Russian player Victor An.
The semi-finals are allocated according to the results of the preliminaries. Although Li Yuang was ranked first in the group in the preliminaries, his results in the final group were indeed poor. Li Yuang only skated 41.094 seconds, ranking third from the bottom among all the qualified players. An Hyun Soo also only skated 42 seconds 223, ranking last.
At the beginning of the first group of races, Lin Xiaojun in the second lane was in very good condition. With his excellent reaction and explosion, he entered the corner before Hamelin and successfully grabbed the first place. Han Tianyu and Watanabe Keita ranked third and fourth respectively.
Lin Xiaojun led the whole race and didn’t give anyone else a chance until he crossed the line. Keita Watanabe ran with him throughout the whole race and did not overtake him once.
Hamelin was looking for opportunities to overtake him at first, but gave up after two laps and began to focus on blocking Han Tianyu.
Han Tianyu tried many times but failed, and finally seized the last opportunity to go out of the corner and surpassed Hamelin in the inner lane. He was second in the group and advanced to the final group A.
The list of the second group of 500-meter semi-finals appeared on the big screen, and it showed the fourth line, Victor An DNS (retired).
Is he really hurt? And it’s so serious that you have to withdraw from the competition? Li Yuang turned his head in disbelief and looked at the Russian rest area.
An Xianzhu seemed to feel something and turned his head towards Li Yuang and nodded.
"Okay, An Xianzhu has withdrawn from the competition. Xu Hongzhi will make full use of the advantage of the track. The two of you will plan the route and advance together!" Head coach Li Yan arranged. She didn't say much, just looked up at Xu Hongzhi.
It wasn't until Xu Hongzhi nodded that Li Yan motioned for them to change equipment and warm up.
Since Ahn Hyun-soo withdrew from the race, there were only three people on the starting line.
Xu Hongzhi, who was standing together, turned to look at Liu Shao'ang and Li Yuang on the right, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: Hey! It’s great to be young!
"Bang!" The game started.
Xu Hongzhi entered the corner first, followed closely by Liu Shaoang and Li Yuang.
After exiting the corner, Xu Hongzhi did not increase the speed directly, but suppressed the speed and did not give Liu Shaoang any room to increase speed.
Liu Shao'ang pulled forward to overtake him, but Xu Hongzhi also immediately pulled forward to block his path.
Li Yuang took the opportunity to overtake on the inside and directly reached the first position!
There was a smooth road ahead, and Li Yuang, who had completed the overtaking, directly accelerated and sprinted!
Xu Hongzhi continued to block Liu Shaoang and buy time for Li Yuang.
Liu Shao'ang knew that he had to make a quick decision. The longer it took, the worse it would be for him.
Entering the corner, Liu Shao'ang obviously slowed down. He was betting on Xu Hongzhi's inside gap when exiting the corner.
He made the right bet! When Xu Hongzhi came out of the corner, he used the centrifugal force to slide to the outside in order to accelerate better. Liu Shaoang took the opportunity to seize the inside route.
In a straight line, Xu Hongzhi is further forward, but he is on the outside!
At the next corner, Liu Shaoang took advantage of the inside corner and stuck Xu Hongzhi behind him.
After exiting the bend, Liu Shaoang accelerated with all his strength and went straight to Li Yuang.
That’s it, the rest is up to you Li Yuang!
Just when Xu Hongzhi was about to give up, his eyes suddenly widened!
What? ! Li Yuang did not choose to continue sprinting, but blocked Liu Shaoang at the corner!
Is this buying me time?
That's right, he could have sprinted directly, there was no way Liu Shao'ang could catch up with him!
But Li Yuang chose to slow down to stop Liu Shaoang!
"Charge! Li Yuang! Charge!" head coach Li Yan shouted loudly on the sidelines.
Why? Why?
Why did Li Yuang do this?
Doesn’t he want the semi-final results? He doesn’t want the advantage in the finals!
Inadvertently, Xu Hongzhi caught a glimpse of the national flag on Li Yuang's helmet!
Team? So that’s it!
teammate! We are brothers in the same trenches!
Xu Hongzhi, who has dedicated himself to the team countless times and sacrificed himself to cover for others, feels the help of the team for the first time!
A warm current rose from Xu Hongzhi's heart, and he felt that his legs were full of strength.
Xu Hongzhi accelerated, reaching the highest speed, surpassing the two people on the outside in one breath, and came to Li Yuang.
Xu Hongzhi made a gesture with his back, indicating that he would change positions with Li Yuang and that he would stop Liu Shaoang.
Then Xu Hongzhi once again pulled aside to give way to the inside channel and wanted to change positions with Li Yuang.
Three seconds later, Li Yuang did not step forward, but still blocked Liu Shaoang's route behind Xu Hongzhi.
"What is Li Yuang doing? Why didn't you charge just now? Why don't you go now?" Li Yan asked Wang Meng.
"Didn't you say we would join forces to advance? He is helping Xu Hongzhi!"
During the pre-game arrangements, Wang Meng saw Li Yan's hints. She knew that Li Yan's plan was to let Xu Hongzhi take the lead and Li Yuang to rush for results. It would be best to get the best results of the two groups, so as to determine the track advantage in the finals and be more confident in hitting the gold medal!
As for Xu Hongzhi, if he can advance to the second place in the group, he will still not be able to escape the fate of being a wedding dress for others in the finals.
From a coaching perspective, there's nothing wrong with doing that. It just lacks a little warmth...
On the ice rink, Liu Shaoang continued to attack, but was stopped by Li Yuang and Xu Hongzhi!
In the end, Xu Hongzhi came first and Li Yuang came second and advanced to the final group A together.
At the end of the game, Xu Hongzhi specifically asked Li Yuang why he didn't sprint just now?
Li Yuang replied: "Didn't the coach say, let's work together to advance!"
Is Li Yuang such a person who listens to the coach? Xu Hongzhi expressed doubts about this.
In fact, Li Yuang's thinking is very simple. Brother Tianyu has already been promoted, and it doesn't matter where the rest are promoted. Wouldn't it be better for three people to participate in Group A of the 500m final at the same time like now?
Back in the Chinese team's rest area, Li Yuang saw Li Yan's expression was bad and said directly: "Coach, the three of us have advanced! This time the medal is guaranteed!"
Li Yan was stunned, yes! Three people participated in the final group A at the same time. This has never happened before!
Thinking of this, Li Yan's face instantly looked much better.
