On February 1, 2008, the twenty-fifth day of the lunar calendar, it is already time to prepare for the New Year at this time in China.

Madison Square Garden, New York, USA, is bustling.

This year, the 101st edition of the traditional American track and field event, the Millirose Indoor Games, is being held at the Madison Square Garden Coliseum.

Elite track and field athletes from across the United States and around the world will compete here to compete for the final title and kick off the 2008 track and field season.

The Millirose Indoor Tournament began in 1908 in an armory in Pennsylvania as a recreational event for employees of the New York City branch of the Warnermaker Department Store. After the armory was filled in 1914, the Millyl Ross Indoor Tournament moved to Madison Square Garden, and from then on it became the longest-running continuous sporting event in the United States until 2011.

Over the past 100 years, the Millirose Indoor Championship has also produced many legendary records and athletes, such as Carl Lewis and Bob Richards, among which many times have won championships.

Among them, two-time Olympic gold medallist (1920 and 1924) 4x100 relay gold medalist Roland Murchison won the men's 300m thirteen times, becoming the most prominent of the many Millirose Hall of Fame.

Later, after 2012, on the basis of the Millirose Indoor Championship, it was directly renamed the United States Indoor Track and Field Open, which became the top indoor track and field event in the world, and was the first competition of the IAAF Indoor License Conference Series.

At this time, in the Madison Square Garden gymnasium, bursts of cheers and bursts of boos rang out at the same time.

At the starting line of the men's 60-meter final of the Milliross Indoor Championships, a long-lost figure was standing there.

Justin Gatlin was silent and calm, his eyes locked on the finish line not far away, seemingly oblivious to the cheers and boos coming from behind him.

After 18 months away from the athletics, he finally came back again, standing on the field again, standing in front of the starting line.

In the audience at Madison Square Garden Stadium, many spectators welcomed his return, and the Olympic men's 100m champion was once the brightest sports star in the American sprint after Morris Green.

Then there were a lot of spectators who didn't welcome him, an 18-month ban, two drug violations, and even in his home country, he was a "unethical" athlete with a bad record.

However, no matter whether others welcomed it or spit on it, Gatlin did not feel any ripples in his heart.

He just wanted to get on the starting line, start running, keep running.

Athletes in competitive sports look at their results, as long as they can run and get back to the top of the world, those who once despised and spurned you will bow down to you again.

Gatlin was well aware of this. He trained at the University of Tennessee, where he won six NCAA titles, but in 2001 he was banned from international competition for two years, he had a lot of criticism.

It wasn't until he won the 60m at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham and the men's 100m at Athens 2004 that all the controversy went away.

And this time with an 18-month ban, he is also mired in the quagmire, and public opinion has sighed, condemned, hoped that he would come back, and hoped that he would leave the field forever.

Especially when Tyson Gay rose to prominence, as the No. 1 male sprinter in the United States, and faced a series of challenges from Suzu and Powell, many people were calling for USADA to lift his ban and let him come back quickly.

But when Tyson Gay showed a competitive rivalry to Suzu and Powell, or even better than him, such a voice never sounded again.

Standing in front of the starting line, Justin Gatlin closed his eyes slightly and took a soft breath.

The cacophony of the Madison Square Garden gymnasium seemed to fade to his ears, and the scene of the year at Woodham High School track and field came to his mind.

Assign a training plan to the boys on the track and field team, and gallop down the track with them over and over again, whistling and frolicking and cheering, what the boys expected of him when he left Woodham High School.

"Actually, I don't know if I care about being replaced by Tyson Gay and being forgotten by a lot of people, but I know that I really want to compete, I want to compete against other players in the ring, I want to beat strong opponents and win championships, I want to have a world record...... That's me, Justin Gatlin! ”

“On your marks!”

The voices of the on-site starters sounding in place.

Justin Gatlin opened his eyes, and the noise around him returned, and the riders around him and him at the 60-meter starting line seemed a little surprised by his performance.

Among the eight runners in front of the starting line, there are those who have competed with him, and there are also those who have watched him race on the spot.

At that time, Justin Gatlin was in high spirits before every game, especially when the opponent's level was far inferior to him, and he was completely unsightly. Walking back and forth on the track like a restless bull, and when excited and excited, he will spit on the track of other runners, and many of his actions are full of provocation.

And now Gatling is quiet and peaceful, even if he occasionally hears someone in the audience shouting "Go back to Florida and grow citrus", he still looks the same.

Focus on the competition, focus on the track, don't care about the rest, the athlete always looks at the results in the end.

Lean over, head down, feet on the starting gear to adjust to the most suitable position, and listen to the gunfire that is about to go off as you have done countless start trainings.

“SET！”

Syllable!

Race guns rang out!

Many of the native New York audiences at Madison Square Garden all stretched out their heads at this moment, without blinking their eyes.

The 60-meter race is closer than the 100-meter, and the action is lightning fast, and it only takes a little distraction to miss the most exciting part.

Exclamations also rang out at this time.

From the moment the gun rang out, Justin Gatlin, who was in lane six, did not react the fastest from the start, and was even relatively far behind.

It seems that although Gatling has been away from the field for a year and a half, he still maintains a high intensity training, but he is still a little unfamiliar with the field, and the starting reaction and starting speed are not as fast as the competitors in the same group.

That moment of backwardness even made people think that the once popular sprinter in the United States, even the world, American Acceleration, was so slow and clumsy in his first race after returning to the game that he seemed to have forgotten how to run.

However, the person with such a thought only flashed in his mind, and the change on the field once again made everyone stunned.

It seems that many people forget that Justin Gatling has never been known for his quick reaction time at the start, and even in the moment of start, he often lags behind the other runners.

However, he didn't run with his legs folded and extended, and his stride was huge with each step, and his hip strength was amazing.

The 60-meter sprint is extremely strict for the starting reaction and acceleration of the runners, and even the top runners are likely to lose their advantage at the start moment if they are a little careless.

But when Justin Gatlin won the 60m at the 2003 World Indoor Championships, others never thought he would win the championship when they looked at his particular running style, and then he still won the championship.

On the 60-meter track, from the first twenty meters of the head to the absolute speed sprint, Justin Gatlin opened his mouth wide, as if he was roaring, his stride was amazingly large, and his eyes were like spitting fire, just in a few seconds, he came first, surpassing everyone. With dark skin and bulging muscles, it looked like Agnemi, the god of wind in Greek mythology, was speeding like lightning.

Before the finish line, the half-man-high chronograph plate clearly showed the result of the men's 60m final of the Miliros Indoor Championship.

The live broadcast shouted Justin Gatlin's name three times in a row, and each time it was telling everyone that the American acceleration, he was back in the game.

6.43 seconds!

Eighteen months later, Justin Gatlin set a personal best of 60m in the first indoor track and field event of the 2008 season.

This surpassed his personal record of 6.45 seconds set in Boston in 2003 and the Miliros Indoor Race record of 6.45 seconds set by Morris Green in 2000!

Now the spotlight was once again on Justin Gatlin, and the cheers from the audience were even louder, and the boos quietly died down.

Holding the timing card in one hand and facing the many reporters who surrounded him to take pictures, Justin Gatlin had a smile on his face.

I am back!