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The Asian Championship Invitational held in Tokyo, Japan, in essence, was a track and field theme star competition, inviting star athletes from Asian countries to compete in track and field events, it was also considered to be an early preview of the Tokyo Olympics next year.

 

On the same plane with Su Zhe were some participants, some of the stars of the track and field team, in addition to a few members like him with a mission to participate, the rest of the athletes were mostly in a very relaxed state, rather than a competition, it looked they were going on tour to Tokyo.

 

Su Zhe was a little puzzled by the state of the crowd.

 

“What’s wrong?” Ye Jun, who was sitting on Su Zhe’s left side, saw his confusion and asked with a smile – the purpose of Su Zhe’s participation was to put all his efforts into the battle of men’s 100 meters and try to open a time of 10.10 seconds to win a seat for his country in the men’s 100 meters at the World Championships, therefore, the Athletics Center didn’t arrange for him to participate in the 110 meter hurdles event, but sent Ye Jun to go as the representative.

 

Su Zhe hesitated, but still scratched his head and laughed: “Nothing, I just think everyone’s state seems to be very relaxed ……”

 

Hearing these words, Ye Jun instantly understood what Su Zhe meant, so he responded with amusement, “Does it feel like everyone’s state is not like they’re going to compete?”

 

Seeing Su Zhe nod, Ye Jun patted his shoulder, “It’s really not easy, you’re finally acting like a newcomer.”

 

Ye Jun continued to laugh at the dazed Su Zhe, “I probably know what you’re thinking – to participate in the competition, you should put your best into the game, as an athlete, how can you not have the heart to win? Right?”

 

, Ye Jun smilingly shook his head at Su Zhe, “This, you have the common mentality problem of newcomers, I thought Coach Su had analyzed it with you.” After a pause, Ye Jun continued, “Taking every game seriously, this mentality is right, but it isn’t to treat every game as if it were the most important event, go all out and be mentally tense.”

 

“As you know, an athlete’s form will fluctuate with individual training cycles and so on, and even if you’re a genius, you can’t resist the times when your form is low. In order to make sure that we are in peak condition for important events, our coaches are constantly adjusting our training goals during our training.”

 

“So now that that’s out of the way, look, we just went through a strong cycle of consecutive tournaments like the National Championships and the World Championships Challenge, and what awaits most of us next is the World Championships in a month. In contrast, this invitational is really more like coming to relax, to practice instead of race and just find our forms. People are physically and mentally exhausted, and if we put our best into this tournament at full strength, perhaps what we’ll lose is the more important tournaments that follow.”

 

Ye Jun’s words reminded Su Zhe of the slightly hidden meaning of his old man’s words to him during this period of time.

 

Recently, Su Yinsheng had been constantly instilling similar ideas into him during this period of time, only that he didn’t fully grasp the meaning, he thought that his anxious mental state was easing and that the adjustment of his mind was a bit successful ……

 

Su Zhe couldn’t help but rub his forehead again, he originally thought he already had the desire to win and aggressiveness necessary for athletes, but now it seemed that in order to become a fully qualified athlete, he still had a long way to go.

 

When the plane landed, it was 9:33 p.m. local time in Tokyo.

 

Su Zhe followed the members of the team all the way to the airport exit.

The airport was still very busy at this time, many people dragged their suitcases out of the airport hall, looking around, waiting for their friends and relatives or partners to pick them up.

 

Following the track and field team, Su Zhe didn’t have to worry about this at all, the reception of the Japan Athletic Association was also very considerate. The person in charge of welcoming the Chinese track and field team was already waiting at the airport exit, with two athletic-looking youths on either side, and one of them was holding a sign that said, “We warmly welcome the Chinese track and field team”.

The person in charge of welcoming the Chinese athletics team was Yusuke Hada, an official from the Japan Athletic Association, while the two young men behind him were two well-known Japanese athletes who were sent by the Japan Athletic Association to accompany the Chinese athletics team in order to show their importance.

 

They were Shota Shiraishi, who was ranked third in the men’s 100m sprint in Japan, and Kanaki Takeshita, who was ranked sixth and also a participant of this competition.

 

Because this event would be used to win seats for the World Championships 100 meters sprint, it had great significance, Su Zhe naturally also learned a lot from the Japanese players who would participate in this.

 

In this year’s season, Shota Shiraishi’s best time was 10 seconds 03, not only had he long won a seat in the World Championships, he also stepped into next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games participation standards, he would most likely represent the Japanese team next year to participate in the men’s 100-meter project competition.

 

And ranked sixth in Japan, Kanaki Takeshita, his best performance in this year’s season was 10 seconds 12, his PB was 10 seconds 09, he was also a strong player who had long broken the 10 seconds 10 mark.

[TN: PB —– Personal Best]

Among Japanese domestic men’s 100-meter runners, those who scored within 10 seconds and 10 seconds during the standard examination period of the World Championships had exceeded the highest quota of the World Championships, therefore, Takeshita Kanaki had missed the qualification for the World Championships.

 

Among these two, Shota Shiraishi looked like a character who wasn’t too idle, although his height seemed to be 180, he unexpectedly had a baby face and his smile revealed a tiger tooth.

 

It was he who was responsible for holding the sign welcoming the Chinese runners. At this moment, the staff of both sides were communicating and handing over, and Shota Shiraishi was smiling and holding the sign in his hand, while waving to the athletic team members, he looked quite friendly.

 

He was accompanied by Takeshita Kanaki, who was much more calm and restrained, revealing a polite air of courtesy but detachment, standing by the side of Shiraishi Shota, he didn’t say much.

 

Just as Su Zhe was standing in place chatting with Ye Jun, a voice full of wonder appeared by Su Zhe’s side – the person who spoke was the Japanese team’s Shota Shiraishi.

 

The tall baby faced man was looking at Su Zhe with a surprised expression. From time to time, some Japanese words that Su Zhe didn’t understand rang out, he seemed anxious to speak with Su Zhe, but he couldn’t communicate.

Because of the language barrier, the tall doll faced man, that was, Shiraishi Shota, became melancholy, he turned his head to look at Takeshita Kanaki, he seemed to want to seek comfort from his companion.

 

Shiraishi Shota: “Takeshita-kun, did you see that? He looks so beautiful …… delicate, cold, white, fragile …… I simply want to use all the beautiful words I can grasp for him!”

 

“I feel like I’m seeing a beautiful fairy …… Why does such a wonderful person exist? I regret it, I should have learned some Chinese before today so that I could personally pass on these words of praise to him!”

 

In response to Shota Shiraishi’s excitement, Kanaki Takeshita gestured for him to calm down first.

 

“Shiraishi-kun, he is a track and field runner from China and a participant of this invitational tournament …… Such a person wouldn’t be a fragile fairy.”

 

It was just a pity that such persuasion didn’t do much for Shiraishi Shota, who instead perked up even more.

 

“Ah! You’re right, he’s a strong person who came to participate in the invitation tournament! Such a powerful and beautiful being ……” Shiraishi Shota said with stars of substance almost appearing in his eyes.

 

“Why was such a perfect person born in this world? A stunningly beautiful fairy from the Chinese Empire …… I feel like he’s taken my heart captive ……”

Shota Shiraishi’s statement plunged Takeshita into silence, he finally decided not to pay attention to his close friend beside him.

 

After a brief communication and verification between the Chinese and Japanese staff, Su Zhe and his group began to follow the guide, Arisuke Hada, towards the location of the car.

 

For the rest of the way, Shota Shiraishi didn’t try to say anything more, instead he occasionally looked in Su Zhe’s direction with a dreamy expression.

 

When he arrived at the hotel arranged by the organizer and settled in, it was already 23:00 Japan time.

 

After a simple clean-up, Su Zhe laid down on the bed to rest – sleep was one of the most cherished habits of an athlete, and since he started training again, Su Zhe had almost always fallen asleep at this time.

 

And this time of the day was 22:00 in his country, which was the peak of activity for netizens.

 

In the morning, Jiang Hanning sent a photo to Su Zhe, which had become popular on Weibo.

 

During the day, the official page of Su Zhe’s College of Arts at S University didn’t hesitate to put the photo of the red banner on the official page of the school, along with a link to the live broadcast of Su Zhe’s game and Su Zhe’s pictures.

 

It wasn’t surprising that the College of Arts was so enthusiastic, after all, they never expected such a talented student. The result was that the student who was only a marginal figure in the entertainment industry had suddenly created a public opinion storm, entered the sports industry, and even won a qualification for the World Athletics Championships?

 

This was a good thing for the college, no less than a pie from the sky, naturally they had to promote it!

 

After seeing their Weibo post, the official page of S University, out of support for their student and the college’s approach, also didn’t hesitate to forward the post to congratulate him on the good news.

 

If everything ended here, perhaps there would be no follow-up, but S University made a post, in a state of boredom, students found this post, taking a closer look – hey, isn’t he very famous, that Su Zhe, he’s in our school / college?

 

So with a wave of attention and reposts, comments came, chasing Su Zhe to the top of the hot search list.

 

Unlike the discussion on Weibo about the [S University’s College of Arts Congratulation Letter on Su Zhe’s qualification for the World Championships in Athletics], many track and field fans in the track and field forum began to analyze the Asian Athletics Championships Invitational.

 

The initial discussion came from a forum poll post called [Can Boss Zhe enter 10 seconds 10 this time?].

 

Many people voted passionately in the post, and about 80% of track and field fans thought Su Zhe should be able to enter the 10:10 mark in this competition, adding a spot in the World Championships for China in the men’s 100m sprint. Only 20% of people thought Su Zhe was likely to remain underpowered.

 

Below the post, the forum crowd holding both sides of view began to fling arguments at each other to prove the correctness of their own inferences.

 

3L: [How powerful Boss Zhe is, you saw it in the World Championship challenge the other day. The talent of Boss Zhe, we also don’t need to explain – the forum has a big brother who organized Zhe Shao’s entire performance data, but also made a curve analysis chart, everyone interested can go check it. In short, in accordance with the strength of this progression curve, at present, he’s been fully equipped to reach the 10 seconds 10 performance mark.]

 

5L: [Support Boss Zhe, I’m posting this to help big brother move the results curve and analysis to this post – Su Zhe’s first participation was the provincial games in S province, its preliminary, rehearsal, final results are: 10 seconds 40 (0.5), 10 seconds 21 (0.9), 10 seconds 18 (1.5). According to the video of Su Zhe’s training later released by the Broken Light crew, he had run 10:35 in training before the competition, so the preliminary results of 10:40 were left behind. Subsequently, he ran at 10 seconds 21 and 10 seconds 18, especially the latter, with the help of the wind speed factor, speculation can be used, then Su Zhe’s 0 wind speed results, should be around 10 seconds 20 ……]

 

The post quoted on by 5L showed Su Zhe’s results of previous competitions in a detailed chart, the degree of detail was no less than the athletes’ performance report form collected by the Athletics Center, which was Su Zhe’s previous competitions, the environmental factors, wind factors, etc. collected to complement the final conclusion: He just needed to maintain a better athletic state, Su Zhe was likely directly enter the 10 seconds 10 mark at the Asian Championship Invitational Preliminaries.

 

But the opponents’ viewpoint also had some truth.

 

They believed that athletes had certain ups and downs in their athletic performance. They keenly observed Su Zhe’s tense state on the field and suggested that Su Zhe still had a newcomer mentality of a novice athlete with little competition experience, he was extremely exuberant and striving for his best in almost every event.

 

This psychological energy had a peak, and no one could maintain this psychological peak state for a long time, and once the psychological state slipped, it may make it hard for him to enter a state of excitement, difficult to mobilize the passion of the game, and ultimately make his game performance suffer.

 

Regardless of the views of both sides, everyone was hoping that Su Zhe could enter the 10:10 mark in the race and win a seat in the World Championships for his country.

 

On the day of the Chinese team’s departure to Japan, sports vloggers who followed athletics on Weibo forwarded the news of [China’s athletics championship team going to Japan to participate in the Asian Championship Invitational] from the official page of the Athletics Management Center, sending their heartfelt wishes to every runner in the team.

 

Likewise, today, a small team appeared in Su Zhe’s super fan forum, posting enthusiastically.

Chasing Cub To Japan: [Aaaahhhhh! I! An overseas face fan, can also be in Japan to chase my cub!!! Ah ah ah ah, thanks to you all, thanks to China Athletics, thanks to the cub for becoming an athlete! QAQ, I’m so excited, I even bought a good Asian Championship Invitational 100 meters track S seat! Cub, mama’s waiting to see you!

 

Watermelon is so expensive ah: [woo woo, sisters see you tomorrow! I bought two days joint tickets, I’ll be waiting for two days in a row to see the cub’s beauty …… upstairs, you’re right, if the cub was still in that company, could we even have hope to see him? I’ve already submitted an application for next year’s Olympic Games …… hope to win tickets. Boing Boing!

 

[ The overseas face fan, who is also a cub …..] I really admire him, and there are many track and field competitions in Europe! Babies, let’s find out about the Diamond League and the Athletics World Challenge …! I also want to see him, I’m waiting for Ah Zhe to come to Europe to take part in the competition …]

The next day, the “philosophers” had posted all kinds of emoji packs of ecstasy and excitement, announcing that they would come to the scene to cheer for Su Zhe tomorrow. The philosopher girls at home or in other countries were also enthusiastically discussing related topics.

 

 

In just three months, the small group of “philosophers” had grown more than twice as large, and some of the young girls who initially watched Su Zhe flop all the way, and even quit the entertainment industry, and then saw the now gradually growing circle of “philosophers”, had a sense of pride and a sour sense of relief.

 

In the anticipation of all, the next day, the Asian Championship Invitational Tournament came as scheduled.

 

This time, the Japanese organizers invited the champions of 44 countries to compete in accordance with the specifications of the Asian Championships in Athletics, and many of them came with the goal of qualifying for the World Championships, so in this sense, this Asian Championships Invitational was the hope of many participants.

 

The men’s 100m competition involved a total of 48 athletes from 44 countries, of which Japan, as the organizer, sent four additional participants.

 

On the first day of the competition, 48 people would finish the preliminary competition in six groups in the morning, and the top three in each group would enter the semi-finals. Among the remaining players, the players with the top six scores would also enter the semi-finals.

In the afternoon semi-finals, 18 players would be divided into 3 groups to compete for the final 8 places, the top two in each group will directly advance, and the remaining players who occupy the top 2 positions will be qualified for the final.

 

Fuji TV, one of the top five private TV stations, would also be webcasting and broadcasting key events over the next two days, while a series of events such as the men’s 100m final at 7pm the next day would be broadcast directly on Fuji TV.

 

Whether from the organization of the event, the degree of intention to hold, or a series of operations to broadcast the event, it could be seen that Japan was warming up for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics next year, and constantly cultivating the national viewing habits of athletics.

 

When Su Zhe arrived at the game site with his team, it was still only 9:00 a.m., but he unexpectedly found that there were already quite a few spectators in the huge Tokyo Stadium, many of whom were carrying special banners and small props, apparently with their own favourite.

 

Ye Jun followed Su Zhe’s eyes and asked with a smile, “How’s that? Are you very surprised?”

 

The number of spectators at the scene did make Su Zhe a little surprised, he participated in several track and field events in the country, although limited, he saw that in the scene of track and field competitions, the number of spectators was often very limited, even such important events as the National Championships and the World Championships challenge were just important to the track and field enthusiasts.

 

But at this moment in the Tokyo Stadium, the number of spectators exceeded what he saw when he was competing at home.

 

Ye Jun sighed, “I was also surprised when I first came here, but then I came to know more, the Japanese people have a running complex, and they appreciate running as a culture. I heard before, in Japan domestic races, the ratings can be compared to our Spring Festival Gala ……”

 

With Ye Jun’s explanation, Su Zhe knew that the Japanese nationals had almost faith-like love for the sport of running. …… Thinking about the various track and field competitions to be held today, Su Zhe also suddenly understood why the audience would be so many.

 

In Su Zhe and Ye Jun’s waiting area, they stood near the audience seats and chatted, suddenly a familiar voice suddenly rang out.

 

“Su, Su!”

 

Su Zhe turned his head back, only to see Shiraishi waving his hand enthusiastically at him, calling his last name insistently with a distinctly Japanese accent.

 

Su Zhe had a pretty good impression of this enthusiastic Japanese sprinting powerhouse, he was about to say hello when he awkwardly remembered that there was no interpreter around with the team, and he really didn’t know how to communicate with this big Japanese brother.

 

After a moment of hesitation, Su Zhe tried to say “hello” in English.

 

With this response from Su Zhe, Shiraishi Shota’s eyes became brighter, and his smile widened, revealing his tiger teeth, he seriously replied with a Japanese accent, “Hello.”

 

It was just obvious that Shiraishi Shota’s English was at the level of being able to ask a good question, and he couldn’t hold a conversation after that.

 

He could only scratch his head anxiously in place, and only after a long time did he say to Su Zhe with difficulty: “Su, you …… look good!”

 

This enigmatic words, froze Su Zhe in place, by the side, Ye Jun let out a burst of laughter.

 

To be honest, at home, although they were initially surprised by Su Zhe’s appearance, they knew Su Zhe was originally in the entertainment industry, his appearance was naturally more superior.

 

After competing with Su Zhe, they regarded him as a tough opponent and ignored his appearance.

Unexpectedly, after Su Zhe came to Japan, his appearance was highlighted again.

Thinking of this, Ye Jun turned his gaze to the stands to the side – sure enough, there were many spectators whose eyes were also being attracted by Su Zhe, whether they were male or female spectators, they all looked like they had stars in their eyes.

 

“Ahhhhh, who is the one next to player Shiraishi? I want to know!”

 

“It seems to be a player from China, he’s so cute! He’s the cutest guy I’ve ever seen!”

 

In the stands, conversations such as these were coming up, but no one knew Su Zhe’s identity.

 

“Ah, maybe we can find out from player Shiraishi?” A Japanese girl made such a suggestion.

 

“But …… it’s not very polite to ask that, right?”

 

Amidst the chatter of the spectators in the stands who were curious about Su Zhe, the men’s 100m preliminaries were about to begin.

 

A staff member in charge of guiding foreign runners found Su Zhe in the waiting area and invited him to the check-in area for check-in.

 

As he was about to follow the checkers to the check-in area, Su Zhe remembered Shiraishi who was still in the same place, and asked the staff to convey a message to Shiraishi.

 

“Player Shiraishi, I look forward to competing with you in the tournament!”

 

After hearing the message relayed by the staff, Shota Shiraishi showed an increasingly bright smile, nodded seriously to Su Zhe, and asked the staff to translate his words as well.

 

“Su Zhe, I look forward to meeting you in the finals!”

 

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TN:

HAPPY NEW YEARRRR!!!!!
Hi, long time no update. So my grandma had been sick, then she had a stroke, entered a stroke-induced coma and woke up before Christmas, she’s permanently in a wheelchair now tho, I and my family are currently with her, just trying to spend as much time with her as possible. My Hiatus is over.
We all survived 2021 ❤️❤️❤️❤️