Chapter 419: The stampede at the Nagai Arena

"Mr. He Zhongqiu, you need to take a urine test now."

At this time, staff from the IAAF came over and interrupted the interview.

"it is good."

He Zhongqiu took a bottle of water from Feng Shuyong and drank it. For him, that bottle of water was only enough for two or three sips.

Li Hong was watching with interest. The 500 ml bottle of water in her hand was very large, but in He Zhongqiu's hand it looked very small.

"Zhongqiu, you are the best!" Liu Xiang gave He Zhongqiu a thumbs up.

"110-meter hurdles, it's up to you." He Zhongqiu also gave Liu Xiang a thumbs up.

"it is good!"

Liu Xiang said excitedly.

"Congratulations, Mr. Zhongqiu."

When entering the passage, Japanese stars such as Satomi Ishihara sent their congratulations.

"thank you all."

He Zhongqiu nodded and walked over.

Feng Shuyong and Li Hong followed him to the testing station. The three of them came to the waiting room. He Zhongqiu drank another bottle of water, then signed the entry and exit control form, handed in his entry certificate, and went in.

"Li Hong, I still can't believe it, 9.69 seconds, this is the world record for Chinese people." Feng Shuyong said excitedly.

Li Hong was equally excited and said, "Yeah, I can't believe Zhongqiu actually ran 9.69 seconds. He never said he wanted to break the world record, he just said he had a chance to win the championship."

At this time, her cell phone rang. It was a long-distance call from Director Liu of the International Department of Channel 4.

"Hello, Director Liu, I'm Li Hong."

"Li Hong, there is a task. Try to do an exclusive interview with He Zhongqiu. The sooner the better. Broadcast it on our channel, live."

Li Hong was stunned. Channel 4 is an international channel that serves the whole world. It is doing a live interview on Mid-Autumn Festival at this time. It has just broken a world record, so the ratings must be off the charts, right?
But she hesitated and said, "Director Liu, this is the content of five sets. If we put it in four sets, will Director Ma be okay with it?"

"I have asked my superiors to coordinate and have four or five sets of live broadcasts at the same time."

"Putting it on our channel can maximize the impact of He Zhongqiu's world record-breaking event."

"At the same time, our channel can also take this opportunity to enter the world's attention and expand our channel's overseas influence."

"Li Hong, He Zhongqiu broke the 100-meter world record, the king of track and field. This can greatly enhance our national self-confidence."

"Okay then. Zhongqiu has just gone in to do a urine test. I'll talk to him right after he comes out." Li Hong no longer had any doubts.

"Well."

Director Liu said, "Li Hong, you are now doing programs on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. The ratings on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been in the top five for a long time, not to mention the ratings and influence of the program celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Maybe someone in the office has some opinions about you. You should pay attention to it, but don’t take it to heart. It’s all normal competition, and you should handle your relationship with your colleagues well.

Now your superiors are very supportive of you continuing to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with Cai, and last time they made it clear that you can continue to celebrate with Cai during the Olympics."

"Thank you for your trust in me, I will continue to work hard." Li Hong said happily.

Director Liu added: "If you do programs on both sides, the station will adjust your salary and allowances. Keep working hard. We also want a pillar for Channel 4."

He Zhongqiu had just finished running 35 meters, and all the excess water in his body turned into sweat. It took him minutes to digest the two bottles of water he had just drunk. The entire urine test took minutes to complete.

"Zhongqiu, I have a task. The station wants to do an exclusive interview with you, live broadcast, and it will be broadcast on channels 4 and 5 at the same time. Is that okay?" Li Hong asked.

"Director Feng, when will the award ceremony be held?" He Zhongqiu asked first.

"It should be ready." Feng Shuyong said.

"Then let's interview after the award ceremony." He Zhongqiu said to Li Hong.

"Okay, thank you." Li Hong said happily.

"You're welcome. I like to maintain good relations with media reporters, especially beautiful female reporters," He Zhongqiu joked.

Li Hong curled her lips and made a speechless expression.

The award ceremony outside was ready and was waiting for He Zhongqiu. As soon as he came out, a staff member invited him in.

Second place was Tyson Gay in 9.87 seconds.

After being overtaken by He Zhongqiu, his rhythm was disrupted, but he finally stabilized his rhythm with his strength and overtook Powell again.

It was 0.03 seconds slower than his best result this year and 0.18 seconds slower than He Zhongqiu. The gap was very large. Facing the new 0.08-meter world record that was improved by seconds, the king of sprinting also lost with conviction.

Third place was Atkins, 9.91 seconds.

Fourth place was Asafa Powell, 9.96 seconds.

Powell, who was in the first place until the middle of the race, lost his rhythm after being overtaken by He Zhongqiu. In addition, due to his poor physical condition, his speed dropped in the latter part of the race and he was overtaken by Gay and Atkins. He did not even get a medal.

Fifth place was Fasuba, 10.07 seconds.

Sixth place was Martina, 10.08 seconds.

The remaining two players' results were around 10.20 seconds.

He Zhongqiu strode onto the stage and leaned over to shake hands with Gay and Atkins.

He was already a lot taller, and now that he was standing at the highest position, he looked even taller. The two of them were only up to his waist, which looked very funny, like an adult and a child.

The person who presented flowers and souvenirs was Yamashita Nagano, chairman of the organizing committee, and the person who presented the awards was Lami Diack, president of the IAAF.

Both of them smiled and presented flowers, souvenirs and gold medals to He Zhongqiu.

As the March of the Volunteers sounded, everyone in the Nagai Arena stood up, and under the watchful eyes of the whole world, the five-star red flag slowly rose.

He Zhongqiu ended the award ceremony with excitement, and countless waiting reporters rushed forward and surrounded him.

Domestic reporters such as Dong Ri were also among them and were lost in the crowd.

Li Hong did not squeeze in for the interview. Instead, she found the referee team and got some detailed data of the 100-meter final.

Then she watched the entire game several more times and took a photographer to interview Powell, Tyson Gay and Atkins to prepare for the exclusive interview later.

These three people had been interviewed by her once before during the preliminary round, so this interview went very smoothly. None of them refused, and some even accepted her interview together.

"Mr. Powell, what does 9.69 seconds mean for the -meter event?" she asked in English.

When she spoke, there was always a smile on her face, and that smile gave people a very dignified, comfortable and warm feeling.

Powell was silent for a moment, then said, "This means that humans have run under 9.7 seconds for the first time, which means that humans have broken through another limit."

Li Hong asked again: "Do you think that the yellow race is not as talented as other races in terms of explosive power?" Powell shrugged and said: "Wolverine has just proved that this is a wrong argument."

"Mr. Guy, I heard that you and Mr. Powell are both injured?" Li Hong asked with a smile.

Gay glanced at Powell and nodded, "Yes, my knee injury has not recovered, and Powell's groin is also a problem."

Li Hong asked: "If you don't have any injuries, are you confident that you can break the Wolverine's world record of 9.69 seconds?"

Guy looked at Li Hong's smiling face. The smile was very warm, but the questions were sharp and somewhat heartbreaking.

But this reporter had a good relationship with Wolverine, and he didn't want to offend him, so he could only say:
"Today the wind was against him, -0.5 meters per second, and Wolverine was able to run in 9.69 seconds, which was really shocking. If it was a tailwind, he would be even faster."

After praising He Zhongqiu, he talked about himself, "If I hadn't been injured, I would have had a chance to challenge the human limit of 9.69 seconds. I think every sprinter wants to challenge it."

The word "challenge" was well used. Li Hong praised Guy in her heart, then looked at Powell, who said:
"9.69 seconds is a record that is difficult to touch, but no one is confident of breaking it. I think it will be very difficult even for Wolverine to run 9.69 seconds again."

That's not necessarily true. Li Hong turned the microphone to Atkins and asked, "Mr. Atkins, in the last 30 meters of the sprint, you surpassed Mr. Powell. Do you want to say something to him?"

Powell's face froze and he rolled his eyes.

Atkins said with a smile: "Obviously, Powell's rhythm was disrupted by Wolverine. I seized the opportunity and I want to say thank you to him."

"Who are you thanking, Mr. Powell?" Li Hong asked.

"No, it's Wolverine," Atkins said.

Li Hong covered her mouth and smiled, and Powell, who was teased, rolled his eyes again.

"what!"

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion among the crowd in the distance, and then screams were heard, and then more people screamed.

"Fuck! Are you going to crush a few of them to death?"

He Zhongqiu knew at a glance that there was trouble, something had happened.

He was surrounded by hundreds of reporters for half an hour, but the interview did not proceed normally.

Because there were too many reporters, hundreds of people were crowded together for a long time, pushing and shoving each other. Finally, someone was knocked down and a stampede occurred.

"Zhongqiu, hurry up and go."

Luo Chaoyi, Feng Shuyong and others quickly surrounded He Zhongqiu, but wanted to evacuate, but they couldn't squeeze out. There were reporters and photographers everywhere, making it impossible to move.

"Don't move! Don't even move!"

He Zhongqiu roared loudly, his voice like thunder.

Fortunately, there were only a few hundred people at the stadium, and some security personnel who had been staying at the arena soon intervened, evacuated the reporters, and carried away the few unlucky people who had been trampled.

But since He Zhongqiu broke the world record for the 9.7-meter race and became the first person to run under seconds, he still had to be interviewed and even hold a press conference.

"I'm sorry, you've wasted my time. I've already agreed to an exclusive interview with CCTV at 11 o'clock. All reporters can attend, but they don't have the right to ask questions. If you want to ask questions, you can submit them to Li Hong in advance."

Before leaving, He Zhongqiu left these words as an explanation to the reporters.

"Who is Li Hong?"

"God, where is Li Hong?"

"Go find Li Hong."

"Who can tell me where Li Hong is?"

After He Zhongqiu left, hundreds of reporters dispersed and went to look for Li Hong.

The three CCTV reporters including Dongri were unaware of this situation. After hearing it, they felt so depressed that they could hardly breathe.

"Forget it. Let's not argue with Li Hong. We can't win. She has taken off with Wolverine and is now a pillar of the station. If we continue to argue, she will make us stand aside."

"That's right, why don't we hold her thighs, she eats the meat, and we drink some soup."

"Come on, let's go find her."

Listening to her companions' discussions, Dong Ri became even more depressed, but she also knew that they were right, so she could only follow them silently.

"Li Hong is here."

"Hurry, Li Hong is there."

As soon as she finished the interview with Guy and the other two, Li Hong was surrounded by many reporters, and then more and more reporters came over.

"Hey, what are you doing? What happened?" The photographer who followed her was frightened.

"Don't panic!"

She forced herself to calm down and asked a reporter from Yanjing TV: "Why are you surrounding me instead of covering Zhongqiu?"

When the reporter told her about the incident, Li Hong smiled and said to her photographer:
"Xiao Zhang, please collect their questions and ask them to write them down on paper."

"Okay, Red Group." Xiao Zhang nodded quickly.

After Li Hong left, she contacted Director Liu again and explained the situation.

When Director Liu heard that there would be hundreds of reporters participating in the upcoming interview, but only CCTV would have the right to ask questions, his excitement went through the roof.

He encouraged her, "Li Hong, that's good. I heard that He Zhongqiu is a very loyal person and the people who follow him have all done well. It seems to be true.

If you maintain your relationship with him, as long as you complete this interview, you will be one of the most famous journalists and hosts in the world."

Luo Chaoyi discussed with the organizing committee in the name of the head of the Chinese delegation. The organizing committee was very cooperative and arranged a visit in the No. 1 Press Hall.

With the help of the organizing committee staff, another photographer following Li Hong was setting up the camera and lighting in the press hall.

He also called in photographers from three other stations and placed four cameras in the best positions, so that they could shoot from multiple angles and switch angles at will.

In addition, we also found two English translators among the international students, one male and one female. They were very excited after being selected.

When Li Hong arrived, it was still 11 minutes before 20 o'clock and everything had been arranged.

At this time, other Chinese and foreign reporters also arrived, and soon filled the press hall that could accommodate 600 people.

The total number of interviewers and photographers exceeded 500, and the press hall was always filled with buzzing noise.

There are over 300 cameras, which means that at least 200 to 300 TV stations and Internet companies will participate in the interview. It is unknown how many people in the world will eventually be able to see this interview, but it must be at least 20 to 30 billion.

It is not known how many TV stations are broadcasting live, but there should be at least hundreds of millions of people watching the live broadcast of CCTV International Channel.

For the hosts and reporters, this was a truly grand occasion. Even the world's top media professionals might not get such an opportunity once in their lifetime. As the face of Channel 4, Li Hong was a little nervous.

(End of this chapter)