Chapter 405 National Track and Field Championships

At a quarter past 14:9 p.m. on the th, Yanjing time, the charter plane arrived in Shishi.

People on the Internet joked that Shishi is one of the cities with the most unsuccessful name changes, but in fact it is not. Shishi’s predecessor was not Changshan.

Strictly speaking, it is a new city after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It developed from a small village in Huolu County combining the transportation advantages of Zhengtai Road and Jinghan Line.

This is a misunderstanding. The county that inherited Changshan should be Zhending County, now called Zhengding. Zhao Zilong was from Zhending County, Changshan County.

Changshan was originally named Hengshan, but was renamed Changshan County to avoid the name of Liu Heng. The county seat was Dongheng County, located in the east of present-day Shishi, and was later renamed Zhending County.

This year's National Track and Field Championships is held in Shijiazhuang for the fifth consecutive year. This year's event is in preparation for next year's Olympics.

The event will open on the evening of the 14th, the competition will officially begin on the 15th, and will end on the 18th, a total of four days, with 21 events for men and women each.

Liu Xiang did not participate in this tournament, but He Zhongqiu did, so the tournament attracted considerable attention.

Countless fans from all over the country rushed to Shishi. The track and field competition, which was unpopular in the past, has become the most popular sports event in the country. Tickets that could not be sold in the past were sold out this time.

In addition, the championship attracted numerous domestic journalists and hundreds of foreign journalists.

Almost all major international media have sent their best sports interview teams.

More than 300 TV stations of all sizes around the world have purchased the television broadcasting rights, and this is also the best-selling domestic sports event for television broadcasting rights.

CCTV also broadcast the entire event live, and China's domestic track and field championships were managed to be as spectacular as an international track and field competition.

The opening ceremony will be held at 8pm.

The mayor of Shijiazhuang, Director Liu of the General Administration of Sports, the director of the Track and Field Center, the heads of the Yanjing City and Shijiazhuang Sports Bureaus and other leaders attended the opening ceremony.

After the opening ceremony, all the leaders, big and small, rushed to the airport.

From the airport exit to the outside, there was a huge crowd of fans, several thousand people, even more lively than the opening ceremony. The city dispatched a large number of security forces to maintain order.

There were hundreds of domestic and foreign media outlets, and because there were too many fans and to avoid causing a commotion, they were arranged to follow their leader into the airport.

Looking at these foreign reporters, Director Liu sighed and said: "There were only a few foreign reporters at the opening ceremony just now, but now they are all here. This is international influence!"

Li Hong and her interview and photography team, a total of five people, stood in the front of all the media.

Later on, only CCTV will be able to interview He Zhongqiu because it is too late and the airport has not arranged for other media to interview him, so CCTV can only interview him for five minutes.

As the face of CCTV-4, Li Hong has seen many big scenes and even interviewed the mayor of Taipei last year. She has made sufficient preparations during this period, but she is still a little nervous.

After all, He Zhongqiu is now the most well-known and influential Chinese person in the world.

Moreover, the timing coincided with the 9:30 p.m. evening sports news on Channel 5, so a live interview was arranged.

Next to her is her partner Yang Jian.

Yang Jian's main commentary event is basketball, but he is also responsible for track and field events.

He Zhongqiu got off the plane first, and saw Director Liu standing at the front, and hurriedly greeted him: "Director Liu, you are here, how dare you take this responsibility?"

"Mid-Autumn Festival, welcome back home!"

When shaking hands, Director Liu said expectantly, "There's nothing I'm afraid of. As long as you get a few Olympic A standards this time, run under 8.6 seconds for the m, and jump over meters in the long jump, I'll be willing to stand here all night."

"No problem." He Zhongqiu said solemnly.

"That's good! This trip is worth it." Director Liu was obviously cheered up and said happily.

Then he introduced other people, such as the mayor of Shi City and other leaders.

At this time, Yang Xue, Tang Yan and others came down. The two babies were woken up before the plane landed and were still making a fuss. Yang Xue came over alone to say hello, said a few words, and hurriedly took everyone away.

Next, He Zhongqiu was going to be interviewed by CCTV, so Li Hong hurried forward, and Yang Jian and the photography crew followed behind.

It was the first time for me to interview someone as tall as He Zhongqiu at close range. She was 170 cm tall and wore a pair of cm high heels, but it was still a long way from her. I could only keep a distance of about one meter so that her tilted neck would not appear so obvious.

In fact, before coming here, she had specifically studied what the most appropriate distance should be when facing He Zhongqiu.

If it's too close, the height difference will be too big and it won't look good. If it's too far, it will seem a bit alienated. One meter is most suitable.

"Hello, Mr. He Zhongqiu, I am CCTV reporter Li Hong."

He Zhongqiu saw Li Hong and said happily: "It's you. I only saw you on TV before, but I didn't expect to see you in person now. This is a big surprise!"

"Ha ha……"

Some people around laughed.

"Do you watch my show too?" Li Hong said with a happy smile.

"I can only watch Channel 4 in the United States, and I watch it often. The Cross-Strait Program you hosted is very good." He Zhongqiu said with a smile.

"Thank you!"

Li Hong said happily.

After the greetings, she immediately got to the point and asked, "He Zhongqiu, Mr...."

"Well, just call me Zhongqiu. The Chinese reporters who interviewed me in the United States all call me Zhongqiu." He Zhongqiu said with a smile.

"Ok."

Li Hong nodded quickly and asked, "Zhongqiu, this will be your first time to participate in a track and field competition. I know your goal is to get an Olympic A standard, so which events are you going to participate in? Are you sure you can get an Olympic A standard?"

He Zhongqiu said: "I will only participate in the long jump in this track and field event. I am not going to do the triple jump and high jump this year. I don't have enough time to train for these two events and my results are not ideal. I plan to participate next year and get an A mark before the Olympics."

"oh oh."

Li Hong was surprised.

As far as she knew, He Zhongqiu had never said in front of the media that he would participate in the triple jump and high jump next year and get an A standard, but now she asked about it.

He Zhongqiu continued, "For track events, we will run the 100m, 200m, and 400m sprint events."

Li Hong asked again: "Mid-Autumn Festival, there is still no Asian or yellow race person who can break the ten-second barrier in the 100-meter event.

I heard that you ran a good time of 9.91 seconds in the -meter training. Do you have the confidence to run this time in the competition? "

He Zhongqiu nodded and said, "As long as I don't make mistakes and perform normally, it won't be difficult for me to break 10 in the 100-meter race."

"Wow!"

"awesome!"

"Breaking ten!"

The Huaxia reporter at the scene exclaimed in surprise. Li Hong also laughed happily and asked, "Zhongqiu, I just interviewed Director Luo of the Track and Field Center..."

At this point, she raised her hand to Luo Chaoyi next to her and said, "Director Luo said that you may be able to break the world record in the long jump event?"

"Oh, God!"

"real or fake?"

This time, the reaction was completely different from the 9.91-second -meter run just now. There were sounds of surprise and discussion.

When I mentioned 9.91 seconds just now, these foreign reporters didn't react much, but now, they all look shocked.

It’s not that the 9.91-meter race doesn’t receive as much attention as the long jump, but that a result of seconds is not considered outstanding in the current -meter event.

The current world record for the 9.77 meters is 0.14 seconds, which is a full 0.01 seconds off. 0.14 seconds is a huge gap, and seconds is a huge chasm that can only be described in light years in the sprinting world.

The world record for men's long jump was set by Powell in 1991 and has not been broken for 16 years. Even in the past 16 years, no one's long jump result in international track and field competitions has come close to 8.95 meters, and the difference is far.

Therefore, the men's long jump world record of 8.95 meters is considered to be the most difficult record to break in track and field events.

But now, Li Hong said that He Zhongqiu might break this record. It is conceivable how surprised these international media reporters are.

All the reporters' eyes were fixed on He Zhongqiu.

He Zhongqiu nodded and said, "I am indeed aiming for 8.95 meters. There is no problem with my physical fitness, but I am still lacking in technique."

"Oh!"

A huge exclamation sounded at the airport.

Li Hong also widened her eyes, somewhat unable to believe it.

After accepting this interview assignment, she has done a lot of homework these days and clearly knows the significance of 8.95 meters in the long jump event. It is a lofty and insurmountable record.

But now, He Zhongqiu said she is trying to break this record, and it has a great impact on her.

As for professional sports journalists, the shock was even stronger.

The interview at the airport lasted a total of five minutes, and Li Hong tried to arrange an exclusive interview with He Zhongqiu.

Of course there was no problem with that. When he was in New York, Zhang Heli would find him at home whenever he had time and interview him. He did so no less than fifteen times in one season.

On the morning of the 15th, He Zhongqiu got up at six o'clock, practiced the Three Body Standing Exercise for half an hour, and then practiced the Eagle Claw Exercise for another half an hour.

He has mastered the two martial arts inherited from his family, the Iron Shirt, and he also wants to perfect the Eagle Claw.

Just after taking a bath, Yang Xue hurried out of the two babies' room and said:
"Sanjin, the two kids were a little noisy last night and didn't sleep well. We won't watch your game and will go back to Beijing first."

"sick?"

He Zhongqiu was stunned. The two little ones had never been sick since they were born, not even had a fever, and their physiques were very good.

"It must be because of the plane. It was the same the last time I went to the United States." Yang Xue said.

"OK then."

He Zhongqiu went in to check on the child, who was now asleep.

There were three nannies taking turns, and each of them had dark circles under their eyes. It seemed that they didn’t get much sleep that night, and they didn’t get much sleep during the more than ten-hour flight, so they were in a rather bad state.

While having breakfast, Li Hong and Yang Jian came over with the interview team.

"Hey, Li Hong, Yang Jian, have you eaten? If not, let's eat something together," He Zhongqiu greeted.

"We ate before coming here." The two said hurriedly.

"Okay, wait a minute. I'll leave after breakfast. Can we do the interview in the car?"

"well."

After breakfast, before eight o'clock, He Zhongqiu took the car arranged by the organizing committee to Yutung Sports Center.

Li Hong and Yang Jian sat next to them, and the photographer sat in the passenger seat. After the car started, the interview began.

Li Hong said: "It's the Mid-Autumn Festival. Today is the long jump preliminaries and finals, as well as the 100m and 400m preliminaries. Tomorrow morning is the 200m preliminaries and the 400m finals. The day after tomorrow is the 100m and 200m finals.

Four events. After you finished playing in the NBA, you filmed a movie for two months. You didn't have much time to rest. Are you physically fit?"

He Zhongqiu shook his head and said, "No problem. The two months of filming were like a rest for me. The intensity was not very high."

Yang Jian said: "I saw an interview with Li Lianjie, in which he said that compared to his ten-hour martial arts training every day, the intensity of filming was not that great for him."

Li Hong immediately asked, "Zhongqiu, you are both a martial artist and an athlete. Which one is more intense, martial arts or sports?"

He Zhongqiu smiled and said, "This depends on the type of training. Martial arts training generally does not pursue the kind of strength training that challenges the limit, but athletes' training does. From this aspect, physical training is more intense.

The same goes for physical training. There is no special physical training in martial arts, but physical training has always been part of sports training.

But it depends on the person. For athletes who don’t train hard, it’s very easy to train for one or two hours a day, or even not at all.”

Li Hong asked: "Zhongqiu, your two children with Yang Xue never seem to appear in front of the media. Is it to protect them?"

He Zhongqiu nodded and said, "The children are still young, less than five months old. If a media outlet offers 10 million US dollars for their cover photos, I won't even consider it. I don't want them to appear in front of the media until they reach adulthood."

"Is it because you are so outstanding that you are afraid of bringing pressure to them?" Li Hong asked.

He Zhongqiu nodded and said, "This is one reason. I will definitely bring them a lot of glory, attention, and pressure.

They either get lost in the glory and attention, or they can't bear the pressure.

So I hope that from the moment they are born, they will receive less attention and glory, and grow up in a way that is closer to ordinary people.”

"Don't you think your descendants will be better than you?" Li Hong asked.

He Zhongqiu smiled and shook his head, saying, "In the sports world and the entertainment industry, there are very few second-generation athletes and second-generation stars who are better than their predecessors.

Even in other fields, there are very few examples, as far as I know, where the second generation is better than the first generation.”

Li Hong nodded thoughtfully, but then said: "Family education is very important. Some big families in China attach great importance to the cultivation of their offspring.

For example, the modern Zeng Guopan family and the Qiantang Qian family have produced many scientists such as Mr. Qian Xuesen. "

He Zhongqiu said: "That is their foundation. A grassroots family like mine does not have that kind of foundation at all."

It seemed that because the interview was conducted in a car, Li Hong's interview was more like a chat, very relaxed, and while they were chatting, they arrived at the destination.

(End of this chapter)