Sprint: This champion is a bit weird

Chapter 172 Four-Year Agreement

"Bro, good luck to you."

In the dormitory of Baylor University in Texas, the United States, Yang Yaozu and coach Liu Xia had just settled in. When they opened their notebooks to look up some information, they saw the email Wen Hao sent him a day ago.

Looking at the short words above, Yang Yaozu was stunned for a while and did not make any move for a long time.

Yang Yaozu's abnormality was naturally noticed by Liu Xia. He glanced at the laptop screen and said seriously:

"Yaozu, now that we have come to the United States, forget about the Asian Games. No matter whether you blame yourself or complain, after all, in this foreign country, all you can do is study hard and practice hard."

"We must now focus on the future and set our goals at the Osaka World Championships and the Yanjing Olympics. Only when we run good results and get honors can we turn around!"

"let me tell you."

Liu Xia said a long string of words in one breath, and Yang Yaozu just replied mechanically "Yeah" and "I know" a few times. It wasn't until the relevant person in charge of Baylor University came to invite them to report to the training camp that Liu Xia finally stopped. Enlightenment that is doomed to be futile.

After washing his face, Yang Yaozu followed the coach out of the dormitory. Seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar landscape of Baylor University along the way, Yang Yaozu felt dazed again.

I still remember that when he went to the United States for training for the first time in 2005, he had three partners with him, namely, two juniors from the Magic City team: Zhou Jiamin, Hu Chengjiang, and Jiang Bo from the Hubei team.

At that time, Zhou Jiamin was only 20 years old and Hu Chengjiang was only 17 years old. Because they did have certain talents, coupled with the Olympic strategy of the national track and field team and the National Games strategy of the Shanghai Track and Field Team, they were packaged and followed Yang Yaozu to Baylor University in the United States. .

As for Hubei team's Jiang Bo, Michael Johnson was invited to China by the Chinese track and field team in June 2004. He accidentally saw Jiang Bo's training and thought he was pretty good, so he also joined the training team in the United States. .

In fact, from the beginning, the only one who was sure to go to the United States for training was Yang Yaozu.

During the half-year training period, Jiang Bo's injuries were inconsistent and he failed to get a ticket to the Helsinki World Championships as planned. In the subsequent Jinling National Games, he only finished sixth in the 400-meter event.

After returning to China, Hu Chengjiang ran several youth competitions, but his results were quite unsatisfactory and he also suffered physical injuries. Finally, he chose to quit the Magic City track and field team under the persuasion of his family.

As for Zhou Jiamin, his performance was pretty good at the beginning. He successively ran good results at the Texas Invitational in March and the Michael Johnson Classic in April, setting new PBs.

Seeing that the training in the United States was paying off, just before returning to China in June, I went to Canada to participate in an international invitational tournament and injured my leg.

When it came to the Jinling National Games, Zhou Jiamin failed to finish the preliminaries without even breaking 11 seconds. He has been training all year long, and I don’t know if he can continue.

When I came to Baylor University two years ago, there were four athletes, two coaches, and a team translator.

Now, except for coach Liu Xia, there is no real translator with the team. The translator is a Chinese student assigned to them by Baylor University.

The road ahead is uncertain.

April 12st morning.

The 2006th Doha Asian Games in 15 came to a successful conclusion one day ago. Wen Hao, Liu Xiang and others finally got on the flight back home and embarked on their way home.

At the closing ceremony on the evening of the 15th, what attracted the most attention from Asian countries was the title of the "Most Valuable Athlete" of the Asian Games.

Before the closing ceremony, Samsung, the largest sponsor of this Asian Games, nominated a total of five athletes as candidates: China-Wen Hao (track and field), China-Yang Wei (gymnastics), China-Pang Jiaying (swimming), South Korea-Park Tae-hwan ( swimming), India-Rana (shooting).

The selection of the awards is conducted by registered votes by journalists from various countries who report on the Asian Games. A total of one "Most Valuable Athlete" and four "Best Athlete" will be selected.

The "Most Valuable Athlete" will receive a trophy, a $5 bonus, and an LCD TV sponsored by Samsung.

As soon as this candidate list came out, everyone knew that Liu Xiang was destined to miss out on the title of "Most Valuable Athlete". The minimum requirement for the selection of the "Most Valuable Athlete" in the Asian Games is to win a gold medal, but having only one gold medal is obviously not enough for someone like Liu Xiang.

Among the remaining four athletes, Wen Hao's honors are the men's 100m and 200m champion, and the 4×100m runner-up, with two gold medals and one silver.

Park Tae-hwan is the men's 200-meter freestyle, 400-meter freestyle and 1500-meter freestyle champion, with three gold medals.

Yang Wei is the men's rings, parallel bars, individual all-around, and team champion, with four gold medals.

Indian shooter Jai Rana is the men's 25m air rifle individual and team champion, winning two gold medals.

In fact, before the start of the men's 12-meter hurdles final on the 110th, some media mentioned that if Liu Xiang wants to win the "Most Valuable Athlete" award, he must break the world record.

Otherwise, just relying on the gold medal in this event, even with his huge influence in the Asian sports world, will not be enough to compete for this award.

Apart from Liu Xiang, the second person to be eliminated was Indian shooter Jai Rana.

In the men's 25-meter air rifle event, Jay Rana beat China's Liu Guohui to win the gold medal with a total score of 590 rings, and tied the world record set by the former Soviet Union's Kuzmin.

Coupled with leading the team to win the team gold medal, Jay Larner's performance is indeed enough to be nominated for the "Most Valuable Athlete".

However, since China participated in the Asian Games for the first time in 1974, the "Most Valuable Athlete" awards have all come from China, Japan and South Korea without exception. There are many reasons for this.

After Liu Xiang and Jay Rana were "out", the pressure came on Wen Hao and Yang Wei, while Park Tae Hwan, the three-time freestyle gold medalist, had the least pressure.

First of all, the largest sponsor of the Asian Games is Samsung; secondly, South Korea's influence in Asia is not small at this time, and it has not yet reached the level of being crushed by Saudi Arabia in the World Expo.

Since the World Cup was held in Japan and South Korea, no matter what frictions arise between Japan and South Korea, at least the atmosphere in the sports world is relatively harmonious.

For example, in the 2011 World Championship bid, Neon publicly stated that it would support South Korea. This time, Neon did not have an athlete nominated for the "Most Valuable Athlete" vote for the Asian Games, so the Neon reporter's vote will most likely go to Park Tae-hwan.

As for Wen Hao and Yang Wei, two athletes who are also from China, if they want to compete with Park Tae-hwan for the "Most Valuable Athlete", they must give up one of them.

After a brief discussion, the Chinese reporters naturally agreed to vote together. However, reporters from other countries who favored China between China and South Korea found it difficult to unify in a hurry.

In the end, Park Tae-hwan was elected as the "Most Valuable Athlete" of the Doha Asian Games with 178 votes, followed by Wen Hao with 152 votes, Yang Wei ranked third with 89 votes, Jay Rana ranked fourth with 75 votes, and Liu Xiang ranked third with 43 votes. five.

However, in the voting for such an award, there is no difference between 152 votes and less than 50 votes. Anyway, they are not eligible for the "Most Valuable Athlete" and can only get a "Best Athlete" consolation prize.

Such a result is somewhat unacceptable to track and field fans in China and even Asian countries, but the result is what it is, and it is difficult to find fault.

The last time a track and field athlete was selected as the "Most Valuable Athlete" at the Asian Games was Koji Ito at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.

凭借100米破亚洲纪录并首次触碰到10秒大关的惊艳表现，以及200米、4×100米夺冠并破亚运会纪录为助力，伊东浩司才能得以获选“最有价值运动员”。

This time, Wen Hao was very vocal before the competition. Although the 100-meter event did not break the Asian record, his time of 9 seconds was convincing enough, and the 92-meter event also broke the Asian record and the world youth record. .

Unfortunately, they lost to the Neon Team in the 4×100m final and only got a silver medal. Therefore, they were a little behind Park Tae-hwan in terms of honor. In addition, there was splitting of votes among journalists from various countries who favored China.

After the closing ceremony, facing reporters from various countries competing for interviews, Wen Hao just smiled and said to the camera:

"I would like to ask everyone to be a witness, and at the same time, I am making a promise to myself tonight - four years later, I will definitely win the MVP trophy of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games with unquestionable achievements and honors!"

(End of this chapter)