Chapter 246: The National Games
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After the race, Dai Li had made things right once and for all. Just as he had said, the athletes had originally complained because they thought they were better than the members of the relay team, and assumed they would help the team perform better if they replaced them.
This was the way sports worked—you let your performance speak for you. It was normal for an athlete to find things unfair when he saw people who weren't better than him got more opportunities and exposure.
But in this competition, Kun Shen, Yueyang Zhu, and Tingshan Chen had all failed. It made all the people present realize that the members of the relay team weren't easily bullied, and that they were all excellent athletes who were better than the top athletes on the track and field team.
Many people had wanted to join the relay team after their success, but they disregarded this dream when they saw how great Dong Qian and Yihao Wu were. It would be humiliating if they insisted on joining the team if they were not good enough.
A lot of people were shocked by Dong Qian and Yihao Wu, but afterwards realized that Dong Qian and Yihao Wu couldn't have won the match if they were not good. There were over 20 teams involved in the competition; they hadn't won this through luck.
Dai Li's coaching impressed all of them as well. Da Li had held the title of coach on the national team, and there were still many coaches who thought Dai Li was too young to be a coach. They didn't respect him much, but after this match, no one looked down on Dai Li anymore.
In under three months, Dai Li had helped Dong Qian and Yihao Wu become successful. Dai Li could take the credit for this, as other coaches couldn't have done this well with Dong Qian and Yihao Wu in such a short period of time.
In the sports world, your performance was the only thing that could do the talking. In this industry, competition existed. If you won the contest, you won all the respect and fans; if you failed, you received nothing. This also applied to the coaching industry.
If you compared a young coach who had won first place to an old one who had never won a competition, surely the former would be more popular. Although the coaching industry valued experience a lot, the truth was that championships were equivalent to experience.
Take the NBA for example; if a coach got three or four championships, even if he was young, no one would consider him inexperienced, and they would put his name next to other excellent coaches.
Dai Li was a good example. He was talented and good at coaching, so of course he would win the public's respect. People like Baojun Sha and Guodong Li, who had competed against Dai Li before, toned it down and gave up their tricks.
Dai Li didn't get distracted, and his training went smoothly.
…
As late August arrived, the National Games officially began.
To be honest, the public didn't pay much attention to the events in the National Games, as they thought many events were just weak athletes playing house.
A spectator sport demanded public attention. However, many sports fans were already spoiled by high-level competitions, and wouldn't be satisfied by an average contest. Once you tried Kobe beef, you would never find regular beef tasty.
The same applied to the National Games. Many events weren't interesting at all, and couldn't attract audience, such as track and field events. The athletes sucked, and no one wanted to watch these events.
Basketball did not fall under this category. There wasn't any foreign aid allowed in the National Games, which made the game easier to predict. If a basketball team invited just one excellent athlete from the NBA, they would surely win the entire competition. You could see everything in this kind of game, including exciting plays and defeating other teams. The audience would be intrigued. However, the games that weren't that fancy and required less proficiency would probably make the audience drowsy.
There were some events, however, that attracted people. Ping-pong, for instance, was a game that had a lot of top athletes. It was a lot of fun seeing the chemistry between top-notch players competing with each other in the National Games. Their performances were even better than those in the National Championship competitions.
…
On the Jiangdong team, Coach Guangzhi Cao, the one in charge, held the newly-released list of names and said, "Any team that took part in the National Games is not an easy team to beat. Although we have Yue Zhao, the champion of the Asian Games, we will not take this competition lightly."
Guangzhi Cao took a look at Yue Zhao and continued, "Judging from the structure of the groups, we missed two strong teams—the Huajing team and the Gangdao team, who are both in Group B. We will only have to compete with them in the final round. Of the teams in our group, we have Jun Xie from the Nanling team, and Zitao Wei from the Shangchuan team. They are top athletes from the national team as well."
"Coach, are we in the same group as the Hanbei team?" Yue Zhao asked.
"Let me see. Yep! We are in the same group as the Hanbei team. It looks like they caught up in the qualifying match. But don't worry, they are not as good as we are," Guangzhi Cao said.
"Coach, I think the Hanbei Team might be really tough to beat," Yue Zhao said.
"Oh?"Guangzhi Cao checked the Hanbei team's list of athletes again.
"Dong Qian, Yihao Wu, Jialiang Zhang; who are they? I have never heard of them. Anyone meet them during the 100 or 200m sprint?" Guangzhi Cao asked.
The athletes shook their heads.
"Cooch, I remember that the Hanbei team didn't join the 100 or 200m sprint," someone said.
"Did they fail to qualify?" Guangzhi Cao curled his lips, looking scornful. "Don't take these candidates who can't even qualify seriously. The fourth runner on the Hanbei team is named Kenan Shen, I know him."
"Coach, is that Kenan Shen? The one who won second place in the national games last year?" an experienced team member asked.
"That's right. That's him. Kenan Shen isn't a common name, so I don't think there isn't another guy shares this name," Guangzhi Cao said.
"If it is really that Kenen Shen, he is over 30 years old. I remember that he was already a big athlete when I attended the national games for the first time. I thought he retired, as there hasn't been much news about him lately," the experienced team member explained.
"He is over 30 years old and still running? Impressive. But we don't have to worry about him since he's so old." Another athlete turned around and said to Yue Zhao, "Yue Zhao, you are wrong. The athletes on the Hanbei team are neither old nor famous. How could they be tough?"
"Because their coach is Coach Li!" Yue Zhao said with a serious look.
"Coach Li? Which Coach Li? The one from the national team?" Guangzhi Cao asked.
"Coach Dai Li," Yue Zhao said.
"So he is a Dai Coach! Then what is there to worry about? Why are you so serious." Guangzhi Cao laughed, looking relaxed.
"No, not that 'dai!'" Yue Zhao knew Guangzhi Cao had mistaken it for "assistant coach," so he explained, "His family name is Li, and his first name is Dai. His name is Dai Li."
"Dai Li? I think I've heard that name before." Guangzhi Cao frowned, trying to remember where he had heard it.
Yue Zhao continued his introduction. "Coach Li was the coach that trained me when I was on the national team. I couldn't have won first place in the Asian Games without his special training."
Guangzhi Cao suddenly looked serious. It took a lot of talent to raise a Asian champion. He had to take this coach seriously.
Yue Zhao went on. "Also, during the relay race in the Asian Games, Jun Xie and Zitao Wei got hurt, so we had to ask that broad jump athlete Haiquan Fang to join us. I was the third runner, and Haiquan Fang was the fourth. Coach Li only needed one day to get us working cohesively."
"I saw that competition. You and Haiquan Fang were so in tune with each other." Guangzhi Cao shook his head as he said, "It's impossible. How could you be so in tune after just one day?"
"I didn't believe it either, but it happened." Yue Zhao sighed deeply. "When I think about it, I still find it unbelievable. But we did it."
"I am not saying I don't believe you. I just thought the teamwork you exhibited didn't seem random or new," Guangzhi Cao explained.
"Coach Li explained later that it was because he had trained all four of us in a way to develop smooth cooperation." Yue Zhao continued, "Haiquan Fang was originally from the Hanbei team, and I heard that Dai Li has been his coach since then."
"Two Asian Games winners! I am scared," Guangzhi laughed.
As a coach, Guangzhi Cao couldn't show his true emotions to others. His laughed to comfort and calm the athletes.
Yue Zhao laughed awkwardly. He reminded Guangzhi Cao with a quiet voice, "Coach, Sijie Yang is actually also a student of Dai Li. In the Asian Games, Sijie Yang beat me and won first place, and back then his coach was…"
"What? Three champions in a row?" Guangzhi Cao was so surprised that he yelled.
Champions in the Asian Games were not just cabbages that you could buy in every supermarket. Plus, there were only a few gold medals to be had in the Asian Games' track and field events.
Under these circumstances, Dai Li could win three medals in the same competition. If getting three gold medals could make you shine, Guangzhi Cao would be blinded by Dai Li's light.
Guangzhi Cao couldn't laugh this time.
…
Shuren Zhao and Li Xue sat side by side on the grandstand.
"Although some athletes had good performances in the sprinting events in the National Games, the results weren't as good as we thought they would be. We didn't see as many unexpected winners as we had hoped for. Instead, those who were predicted to win did so, and those who had been expected to lose failed," Shuren Zhao summarized.
"I personally hoped to see some unexpected winners, but it was a shame that no one had showed up." Li Xue continued, "Our next move is to train Sijie Yang carefully for the sprinting games. I intend to offer him more opportunities so he can get some more competition experience."
Shuren Zhao nodded in agreement. "If there are any international games, sign him up. Don't worry about losing, as failure is also good experience. If he loses today, he will win tomorrow!"
As they were talking, the starting gun fired, and the first round of relay race began. Shuren Zhao suddenly stopped talking and looked at the track.
"Eh?" Shuren Zhao made a questionable sound, gazing at the track intently. There was an obvious gap amongst the runners as the runners passed their batons.
It was at this time that Shuren Zhao suddenly commented, "How could this leg have been so fast? In just one leg the gap between the groups has been widened."
"Doesn't this seem familiar?" Li Xue smiled.
On the track, the third leg had already started. Shuren Zhao suddenly shouted, "The Thai team!"
"You've got a sharp pair of eyes." Li Xue gave him a thumbs up and continued, "That's right. They are using the Thai team's skills. Their athletes don't have advantages in speed; in fact; they are actually slower than other teams. But they saved time and gave themselves an advantage with their smooth cooperation during the race."
"Which team is this?" Shuren Zhao asked immediately.
"The Hanbei team," Li Xue said. "It must be the team Dai Li is coaching. I can't think of any other teams that would use this method."
"Your favorite student?"
Li Xue leaned back in his chair and watched as Dong Qian rushed to the finish line and finished in first place. He said, "Dai Li is really good at coaching. In just a few months he was able to learn from the Thai team and make the skills his."
This student will surpass his teacher eventually. Li Xue smiled, satisfied.
…
In the first round for Group A, the Hanbei Relay Team ran the fastest and entered the final round. They had also won the public's attention with this victory.
It was a common thing for a strong team to garner more attention as the competition went on. Take the Huajing Team for example; there were three top athletes on this team, including Sijie Yang. Sijie Yang was the 100m sprint champion in the Asian Games. Any team he was on would have a better performance, which was why the Huajing Team was the favorite to win the competition before the game even started.
This was also the case for the Gangdao Team. They were able to join some international competitions because of their special geographic position. This had helped them gain more experience. Their team members were also very professional, and their best performances had even been better than the national team in some past contests.
As for the Hanbei team, there weren't any celebrity athletes; there were many names people had never heard of before. Therefore no one really cared about the Hanbei team prior to this competition.
Things changed after the first round. None of the teams who had gotten through the initial round were weak. Making it to the final round was a sign that this team was excellent.
More than half of the athletes standing on the track were from the national team, including some Asian champions like Sijie Yang and Yue Zhao. Compared to their teams, the Hanbei team seemed a bit awkward.
Before the race, all the athletes from different teams would say hi to one another. Those who weren't on the national team had become friends with athletes who were, as they had come across each other in big contests so many times.
The athletes on the Hanbei team were the only ones who didn't know anyone here. They hadn't had many opportunities to take part in different contests, let alone meet top notch athletes in big competitions. Surrounded by strangers, they could only stand around awkwardly.
Dai Li saw quite a few acquaintances, including his former colleagues who had showed up to the match area.
…
Li Xue looked at the races with interest from the grandstand.
This is going to be fun. The athletes on the Hanbei team were not excellent athletes themselves, but had won because of their excellent teamwork. Let's see whether speed is more important than teamwork this time.
Just as Li Xue finished thinking this to himself, the starting gun sounded.