[Short track speed skating] From academic master to Winter Olympic champion

Chapter 28

Xu Qing shook the stopwatch in his hand: "I don't call it cheating, I call it taking advantage of the verbal contract."

Usually, Gu Ran fooled others, but today she was taught by the old fox to be a man. She became angry from embarrassment, and said indiscriminately: "Bah! If you can't afford it, don't play it!"

"If I remember correctly, you were the one who tricked me when you made this bet." Xu Qing looked at him with raised eyebrows, feeling that he was a half-grown child, and it was fun to tease him, "Why, you are only allowed to trick me, not Am I against the routine?"

Gu Ran was shocked by his shamelessness: "You are called old and disrespectful."

Xu Qing asked Zheng Wenkang beside him: "Am I this old?"

In order to photograph the head coach's horse, Zheng Wenkang sold his younger brother without even thinking about it: "No, no, Director Xu is in his prime."

Xu Qing pinched the back of Gu Ran's neck vigorously again: "Work hard young man, you don't have much time left."

After he finished speaking, Shi Shiran slid away, leaving Gu Ran with an unconvinced expression.

Zheng Wenkang walked over to help his junior brother: "Forget it, he is the chief executive after all, he has the right to speak, we are all vulnerable groups, obey, you know?"

Gu Ran turned her head and looked at him murderously: "You traitor!"

Zheng Wenkang slapped him on the buttocks: "Little guy, how did you talk to senior brother?"

Gu Ran glared at him: "You try again."

Zheng Wenkang suddenly remembered that during the test just now, it was this puffy and round buttocks, and if he moved it a little bit, his route would be stuck.

So, as if to vent his anger, he slapped Gu Ran on the ass again: "Slapped, how is it?"

Gu Ran winked at Wu Kaize who was on the side, and the two immediately pressed Zheng Wenkang on the crash pad, almost ripping off his one-piece suit.

The teammates who watched the excitement nearby and didn't think it was a big deal formed a semi-circle and started booing. Xu Qing knocked on the helmet all by himself, and they all turned into quails in seconds and scattered.

The final result was that after the training, the three of them stayed, and one of them added another 1500-meter technical skating.

Wu Kaize felt wronged: "I'm here to help, why should I be punished together?"

Zheng Wenkang was more wronged than him: "But I am a victim. Just now I praised him in his prime, but Director Xu is really moody."

Gu Ran followed behind the two of them without saying a word, trying to make every movement as standard as a textbook.

Technical skating does not need to pursue speed, but requires athletes to focus on making technical movements as standard as possible during slow skating.

1500 meters is not too much, and Xu Qing is about to set off for the race, so he is merciful.

In order to further develop the "Northern Ice South Exhibition" strategy, when choosing the host city of the China Cup Short Track Speed ​​Skating Elite League, it will also consider the geographical location, with two cities in the north and south.

The first stop of this year's event was chosen in a coastal city in East China.The weather is approaching October, with warm autumn sun, blue sea and blue sky, very cozy and comfortable.

When we got off the plane, there happened to be another flight arriving in front of us. It was Province H. They were wearing blue sportswear and white sweatpants. There were hundreds of people there. At a glance, the entire arrival hall was full of people. Blue and white ocean.

Gu Ran was too familiar with this outfit, it was the team uniform of Province H, and every time they competed, their team was the largest with the largest number of people.

In this elite league, each team is allowed four players to participate in each individual event. If it weren't for the regulations of the organizing committee, each participating unit, each age group, and all events in province H would have participated with a full quota. A big province.

Zheng Wenkang half-closed his eyes and looked over: "They accounted for a quarter of the total number of participants in the competition. The organizing committee should arrange a sub-competition area for them and let them play by themselves."

In the crowd, Gu Ran saw Chi Lang at first sight. Everyone else was wearing sports jackets, but he was the only one wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt of the same color. The sportswear was casually hung on the strap of the schoolbag.Standing beside him was Liu Xu, talking to him.

Although Chi Lang is only 16 years old, compared with the players in the adult group of their team, his height and shape are not bad at all, and he will not lose the wind in the confrontation.

His weakness is that his technique is not delicate enough, even a bit rough.According to Jiang Yan and Xu Qing, technology is the foundation, and once formed, it is difficult to correct.

Based on Gu Ran's observations of Chi Lang in these few games and the Shanghai training camp, it cannot be said that there has been no improvement at all, but none of the old problems have been corrected.

After being stared at for a long time, Chi Lang seemed to have noticed something, turned his head suddenly, and happened to meet Gu Ran's gaze.

At the moment when the four eyes met, Chi Lang raised his chin at him, this action actually attracted the sideways glances of many girls.Even Liang Kexin said beside him: "I'll go, Chi Dali is handsome again."

Gu Ran asked her: "Senior sister, don't you think I'm handsome?"

"That's different!" Liang Kexin immediately reached out to pinch his face, "He belongs to the tough and handsome guy, and you are a delicate and beautiful boy."

Suddenly, the phone in Gu Ran's pocket vibrated, and he took it out to see that it was a message from Chi Lang.

The other party sent him a video. The angle of the video was Gu Ran taken from Chi Lang's direction. Then the camera moved to the left, and someone next to him took a sneak shot of Gu Ran with a mobile phone.

Gu Ran turned her head immediately, and saw two girls holding up their mobile phones and whispering to each other.

Seeing him turn his head, he took the time to tap the phone screen twice, then ran away with a smile.

Gu Ran: "..."

"Haha!" Wu Kaize put his shoulders on his shoulders, "Little brother, you look so attractive."

Province J sent 28 athletes this time, plus more than 30 staff including coaches, team leaders, team doctors, and equipment engineers.It can't be compared with Province H, but it can be considered as the largest number of participating teams.

The hotel they stayed in is very close to the competition venue and can be reached on foot.

The next day, the arrangement was for public ice training, and Province J was in the afternoon.Taking advantage of this time, Gu Ran also observed the players of other teams.Some of them have played together before and are also opponents, some have met in the national training team, and the rest are really the first time to see each other.

The open ice training time for each team is not long, and there will not be any key tactics. It is mainly some routine training, and nothing can be seen.

Back at the hotel at night, Xu Qing routinely called everyone together for a meeting.

Tomorrow is the first competition day of this competition, as long as the preliminaries of each individual event are carried out.

The men's 1000m preliminaries will be in the morning, and the 500m and 1500m will be in the afternoon.

In other words, Gu Ran has a game in the morning and one game in the afternoon.

In fact, before participating in this competition, he had a clear understanding of his own strength.

After all, now he can't even skate Zheng Wenkang, and the champion has never thought about it. He is already very satisfied if he can enter the semi-finals in the 1000 meters and the final in the 500 meters.

Xu Qing's request to him is even simpler: "I just take you out to see the world, grades or something, it doesn't matter."

Gu Ran reminded him confidently: "What do you mean you take me out to see the world? This is my qualification to slip out."

Xu Qing didn't say anything, just rubbed his head with a smile.

There are eight groups in the 1000m preliminaries, and Gu Ran is in the fifth group, so that he has enough time to observe his opponents.

Gu Ran sat on a chair in the inspection area and watched the game from a distance.

The moment the starting gun fired for the first group, he sat upright involuntarily—the momentum and starting speed displayed by the four contestants were definitely not comparable to the children in the U series.

After 9 laps of the race, the on-site referee confirmed that there was no penalty, and the results were displayed on the big screen. The top two directly entered the next round, with No.3 to be determined and No.4 eliminated.

When Gu Ran saw the result, he couldn't help but shudder—he originally wanted to keep his strength in the preliminaries and ensure that he could enter the next round.

Judging from this result, Gu Ran not only needs to sprint with all his strength, but also needs to slide a relatively ideal result to ensure that the group will appear first.

After clearing the ice, the second group of contestants entered the arena.There was Wu Kaize in this group, Gu Ran took a closer look.

Wu Kaize grabbed the first place from the start. After all, his strength is there, the whole process went smoothly, and finally entered the next round with the first place in the group.

In the fourth group, Chi Lang came on the stage. As soon as he came up, he failed to grab a favorable position, but fell to the third place.

The first player in the front rushed quickly and distanced himself from the three behind. Chi Lang worked hard for a long time, but he could only compete for the second place.

But the strength of the two is comparable, and the opponent's choice of route is even more reasonable.Chi Lang didn't give up either, trying to overtake every corner.

Finally, in the last three laps of the race, Chi Lang finally got his chance.

The players in front were exhausted, Chi Lang took advantage of the curve and successfully completed the overtaking, and finally entered the quarter-finals.

Seeing this, Gu Ran couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief for him.

According to the lottery, Gu Ran was in the second lane. He didn't know any of the athletes in the other lanes, so he could only tell which team they belonged to by the team badge on their chest.

No. 167 on the first track on his left is from Province L, No. 202 on the fourth track on the far right is from Feiyun Club, and No. 124 on the third track next to him is from Province H.

Before the game started, Gu Ran felt a very strong sense of oppression, and it was the number 124 beside him that gave him this feeling.

Province H is an existence that cannot be ignored.

Gu Ran's attention was all on No. 124, so much so that when the match started, he stared at the opponent closely. Even if No. 124 grabbed the first place, as long as he followed him closely, he could at least get No. 2. [-].

However, when he reached the first corner, things were far beyond his expectations.

First of all, No. 202 in the fourth track took the first place from the outer track, No. 167 in the first track came in second, he was third, and No. 124 fell to the end.

This completely messed up Gu Ran's previous thoughts, but the competition had already started, he couldn't control that much, he could only speed up the pace of pedaling and try to catch up.

But no matter how hard he tried, he and the No. 167 blocked the route in front of him, and he had no chance to surpass it.

On the contrary, No. 124 behind him suddenly rushed up from outside. Not only did he want to surpass Gu Ran, but he also wanted to surpass No. 167 in one breath.

Only three laps into the race, the field was in chaos.

No. 124 surpassed Gu Ran, but not No. 167, and No. 167 was also trying to surpass No. 202 in front.

The gap between the four players is very small, and everyone is trying to surpass and counter-surpass.

In the melee, Gu Ran not only had to keep up with his opponent at an extremely fast speed, but also had to keep his mind running, thinking about how to surpass him.

The top two in the group can directly enter the next round, No.4 will be eliminated directly, and No.3 will finally compete with No.3 in other groups, and the top four can advance.

No matter what, he couldn't just be ranked fourth in the group stage.

However, he is now in fourth place, and as the fourth, fifth, sixth laps... get closer to the finish line, his hope of overtaking is getting slimmer and slimmer.

At the last corner of the eighth lap, No. 124 from H Province finally surpassed No. 202 in front and came to the first place.

As for No. 202, it was obvious that he was physically exhausted later, and his speed gradually dropped.

So, No. 167 behind him saw the opportunity and prepared to overtake him at the next corner.

Keeping gliding at high speed, Gu Ran consumes a lot of physical energy.He has been holding back all his strength, not daring to relax, once he slows down a little, he will be thrown away by his opponent immediately.

He forced himself to calm down, don't worry, the game is not over yet, there will definitely be opportunities.

His eyes were fixed on the front, watching the movements of every opponent, and he refused to let go of any flaws.

Finally, the race came to the last corner, and No. 167 cut to the outside lane, preparing to overtake No. 202 with his own physical strength. No. 202 reacted very quickly, and immediately changed his route, trying to get stuck in the outer position.

Gu Ran lay dormant for nine full laps, and at this moment he finally found a chance. He gritted his teeth, resisted the soreness from his legs, and kicked on the ice again.Taking advantage of the entanglement between No. 167 and No. 202, he overtook it from the inner road.

In the final sprint stage, No. 202 has been left at the end. Instead, Gu Ran and No. 167 rushed forward, one left and one right, stretching their legs almost at the same time as No. 124, pushing their skates forward as much as possible, striving That slight advantage.

"!!!"

The skating hall to undertake this competition is not big, with only a few hundred seats in the stands.The first match day was also a qualifying match, and there were very few spectators present to watch the match, and the audience seats were all players and staff members of the participating teams.

The games on the field are played in groups, just like an assembly line, there is nothing special about it, and everyone will get bored after watching too much.Except for teammates participating, few people really pay attention to the field.

And just now, everyone sat up straight involuntarily.

"My God, is this an early stage of the final?"

"Who is promoted, I don't see clearly."

"Liu Fei and Ren Yongjie are in the same group, it's like a fight between gods."

"I want to know who that No. 77 is, but they haven't been thrown off by them!"

"He looked so small, unbelievably small."

"..."

Gu Ran slid a long way before gradually slowing down to a stop. Although the temperature on the ice was only 5-6°C, beads of sweat had gathered on Gu Ran's chin.

He followed the guidance of the staff and walked out of the field. Others were putting ice jackets on the skates, but he was a little bit slow with one hand on the crash pad.

Suddenly, a hand put on Gu Ran's shoulder: "Your name is Gu Ran, right?"

Gu Ran turned around, and the person talking to him was No. 124 in H Province.

Gu Ran was noncommittal: "It's me."

"My name is Liu Fei, Chi Lang's senior brother," he paused for a moment before saying, "Liu Xu's brother."