16 July 2007.

Rethymno, Crete, Greece.

It is a tourist city that still retains its ancient aristocratic appearance, with buildings dating back to the 16th century, the small Venice harbor and narrow streets within the city, the tall arched ornate portico, the stone staircase full of time, and numerous Byzantine and Greco-Roman ruins that attract many tourists from all over the world.

Among them, the Minoan civilization centered on Kidonia in the east of Rothymno is known as the Museum of Modern Antiquities and is surrounded by many academic researchers.

With a population of just over 40,000 and a laid-back lifestyle, Rothymno is a city of just over 40,000 people.

However, in such a slow-paced city, at this moment, in the city's most modern stadium, a competition is being staged for the extreme speed of the human body.

The Vardinogianneia Athletics Competition, a track and field competition held annually by Rethymno for international athletes, is an international event, but it is a small event in the ninth division of the IAAF's event hierarchy.

At the Rethymno Stadium, eight sprinters from around the world are gearing up for the final race preparations before the men's 100-meter starting line.

Due to the low level of the game and the limited population of Rethymno, there were only a few hundred spectators watching the game in the stadium, and large slots of the seats were empty.

But in the face of such a deserted stadium, among the eight players waiting for the game, a tall black young man who was much taller than the other players looked extremely serious, and his lips moved lightly, as if he was thinking something.

"10.30 seconds, 10.30 seconds, hey buddy, you can do it, let's start this race and say goodbye to the damn 400 meters for good!"

"Let's move on to the short 100m event, and see, this is what we are looking for, to become the much-anticipated sprint superstar!"

"But don't be careless, if it's a little bit off, hehe, buddy, what awaits you will be endless pain next season. You are now a man desperate for honor! ”

The black young man's head was held high, and his gaze seemed to pierce the space, looking far away at the finish line.

He felt the excitement of his body, and this excitement made him train harder and harder since he made the bet last year!

He knew what this game meant to him, and off the field not far from his game, he believed his coach Glenn Mills was waiting with scrutinizing eyes for him to play this game.

That promise, that promise to run 100 meters, is about to start here!

Glenn Mills set him the first goal to set a new national record in Jamaica, which he achieved at the National Championships in Kingston on June 24th.

In 19.75 seconds, he broke the Jamaican men's 200m national record set by Don Quarry at the age of 36. The first condition has been met, and now it is time to live on the second goal that he will achieve.

“On your marks！”

The voices of the starters are already sounding, and the race of Rethymno is imminent!

"Come on!" The young black man said silently to himself as he walked to the starting line, his eyes more determined than ever, a field of sprint events in which he occasionally warmed up and went for a run, which he had thought about by chance when he was younger, but was quickly reversed by all the coaches.

Everyone said he should run the 200m and 400m and become the next "Forrest Gump" Johnson, and he himself always thought so.

However, the pain of '03 and '04 was too unforgettable.

"Usain Bolt, you have no way back today, never go back to the 400-meter track and die!"

He said to himself fiercely again, strode onto the starting gear, squatted down, looked up at the sky, his chest was scratched, and the necklace pendant around his neck fell silently.

Then, lean over, bow your head, and listen to the gunshots from the start!

Syllable!

The moment the starting gun sounded, he suddenly started and accelerated off the track, his long and powerful legs made his start not have any advantage, and he was not very fast at the moment of starting, which he knew very well.

In the first 20 meters of acceleration, he could clearly feel that the runners on his left and right lanes were ahead of him, they were lower in height than him, their legs were shorter than him, and in the time he took three steps, they had already taken four steps, and the starting acceleration exceeded him.

But he didn't panic in the slightest, it was something he knew early on, even when he ran 200 meters.

But he knows that soon, he'll regain the advantage of a faster starter.

His stride began to grow larger and faster!

Thirty meters, forty meters, fifty meters......

He ran all the way on the track, he didn't have time to think about anything, he just knew to run desperately, desperately moving his legs, desperately shaking his arms, forgetting his height and leg length disadvantage, and thinking about the terrifying scene of the coach staring at the stopwatch to supervise him running the terrifying 700-meter super distance training.

700 meters of ultra-distance training, that kind of pain, he seems to feel like the back of his ass is on fire when he thinks about it!

At a distance of 100 meters, under his huge stride, he has crossed the finish line in an instant!

And in this one, the black youth suddenly found out that he ran the first place!

I couldn't believe I was the first to cross the finish line as I slowed down before the finish line, and although the other competitors were not the best in the world, there were a few people he had heard of many times, and even faced each other in the 200m race.

They were clearly good in the 100m, and one even broke the 10-second mark.

But, the black youth was a little stunned, I won! It was me who won!

His heart was screaming.

It was at this moment that he came back to his senses, and he wanted to see his results!

He glanced at the timer with hope and prayer, and then, he was completely frozen!

1st place, Usain Bolt, 10.03 seconds!

In an instant, the black youth almost had a huge look of ecstasy on his face, and waved his long arms to signal to the small crowd in the stadium.

"My life was saved!"

The first thought that crossed the mind of the black youth was that after running such a good result, he would never have to go back to the 400 meters and suffer.

A huge stone squeezed on his chest seemed to fall heavily at this moment, and the whole person was extremely relaxed and happy, and his body seemed to become lighter.

"Thank God I met the Great Savior!" The black youth thanked silently in his heart.

On the sidelines, when Glen Mills saw this result, a look of disbelief appeared on his round face, and then it also turned to ecstasy.

"You've surprised me, Yusain!"

From the moment he took in this disciple, Glenn Mills discovered the distinctive qualities and super-long talent of the black youth, although at that time he was plagued by injuries and scoliosis, and his upper body was not stable enough when running, and he lost too much energy by shaking from side to side.

But there is no doubt that he is the best disciple he has ever brought in his life as a teacher.

Since 2004, the third thought, under his training, this sprinter who once briefly attracted the world's attention at the World Youth Championships has finally grown into a top athlete who has the qualifications and strength to challenge the current top and talk about several people.

The time of 10.03 seconds is an unimaginable result for a tall athlete who reaches six feet and five inches, and this is just the beginning.

In the 100m, Glenn Mills was well aware that he had barely done much targeted training.

Poor starting reaction, too slow acceleration at the start, and insufficient development of the absolute speed of the race on the way, but, even so, he ran a time of 10.03 seconds!

If...... If you train further......

Glenn Mills felt his body tremble slightly, excited, hot, and at this moment, a new path opened up in front of him.

The greatest and most eye-catching track and field event in the world is undoubtedly the 100-meter event, compared to the 100-meter, the combined popularity of the 200-meter and 400-meter, which also belong to the sprint sequence, cannot catch up.

Only 100 meters will be called the World Flying Man War!

And now, Glenn Misle seemed to see something beckoning, waving to him as a coach, to that young black man with a cheerful smile.

"Coach, I have completed the task you gave me!" The black youth walked in front of Glenn Mills, his face still hanging and shouting, the instant 100-meter explosion, the heat accumulated in the body, is being discharged through sweat at the moment.

"Usain, I never thought you could run into ten seconds and a few seconds." Glenn Mills grinned and smiled brightly, "I thought you would run ten seconds and ten seconds two......"

"Then we said yes, Glenn, you won't regret it, will you?" The black young man looked at Glenn Mills' smile and asked, still a little uneasy.

Glenn Mills just smiled and didn't answer again.

At this moment, he seemed to have seen through the long river of time, a year later, two years, three years later......

But before that, the challenge was no less, with the Golden League in Paris ten days ago......

……

The timeline is rewind 10 days before the start of the race, in Paris, France, thousands of miles away in Rethymno, the second stop of the 2007 IAAF Golden League is in full swing, and the men's 100m flyer battle that has attracted the attention of the world is about to begin.

"Coach Lee, does Powell have a shadow over the Golden League? This pre-game retirement came a little abruptly! ”

Zhang Pingqiu's expression was rarely relaxed, and he said to Li Zhizhong, who was standing aside and waiting for the men's 100-meter runner to enter.

Li Zhizhong's face didn't necessarily have much lightheartedness, but when he heard Zhang Pingqiu ask, he still smiled, "It's really hard to say, if you want to say that Powell didn't take Su Zu into account, it's definitely unrealistic, but Powell won Su Zu once in New York this year, so it is said that he should have confidence." But it's also possible that you want to make some reservations and wait until the World Championships! ”

Li Zhizhong has no regrets about Su Zu's loss to Powell this year, for competitive athletes, winning or losing is more important than the sky, if Su Zu has maintained a winning posture against Powell, Powell will not mention a little competition in the face of Su Zu. But with Powell winning once, that mindset is likely to change.

However, judging from the current situation, even if Suzu's performance is obviously declining, Powell still seems to have concerns, Suzu did not participate in the Golden League in Oslo, Powell won the championship with a time of 9.94 seconds, and vowed to win the million-dollar prize and the world championship.

And when Suzu confirmed his participation in the Golden League in Paris, Powell's side suddenly announced his withdrawal. Although the organizers of the Paris tournament said that Powell was injured at the Jamaica Athletics Championships last month, and he will miss the Rome leg that starts on the 13th, it will not affect his participation in the World Championships, which will start in Osaka, Japan, on the 25th of next month.

The implications are intriguing.

Whether Asafa Powell gave up the Golden League in order to prepare for the World Championships and aspire to a major championship, or whether he avoided the game because of Suzu, outsiders do not know.

There are many people who want to win against Suzu, and there is no doubt that one of them is Asafa Powell, although he has won one game this year, it is nothing compared to last year's almost complete defeat against Suzu.

But now, Li Zhizhong, Zhang Pingqiu and others can only think about it like this, after all, whether Powell is really a groin strain, outsiders are not easy to judge, and compared to Asafa Powell, Su Zu's own situation is the most important link.

With the sound of the radio at the scene, the men's 100m race kicked off at the IAAF Golden League in Paris, France on July 6, 2007.

Su Zu stood in the middle of the fifth lane of the nine tracks, standing in the middle of the arena, and the noise was enthusiastic.

At this time, the eyes of countless people on the scene fell on him, as the first non-black player to set a world record in the men's 100m, he won all six races of the Golden League last year.

Although many media in Europe and the United States are questioning Su Zu's achievements with various voices at this time, it is not without some media with ill intentions or wanting to make a big news, but as long as Su Zu stands on the track and field, he will naturally become the focus of attention of all media and audiences.

Whether it was the televised broadcast of the race in France or the big screen on the scene, more than a third of the time after the nine runners appeared on the track, Suzu's expression was captured.

Most of the abnormal public opinion in the media comes from Su Zu's consecutive defeats in several recent Grand Prix, and there are also doubts that he did not run into the 10-second mark.

But in fact, this simply does not hold water.

At the Golden League in Oslo on June 15, in addition to Asafa Powell, who ran 9.94 seconds to win the championship, other players such as Obikviru, Fasuba, and Mark Lewis also scored 10.06 seconds and 10.25 seconds.

The reason why Su Zu became passive is nothing more than that since the 04 Olympic Games, the results have been too rebellious, and he has basically not fallen out of 10 seconds. After Su Zusan broke the world record, it almost became the target of global attention.

From the perspective of the media, it can attract people's attention. And from the perspective of attention, especially from the perspective of domestic attention, what they hope at the moment is that Su Zu can continue to run faster, win the championship, and break the world record, but they can't bear the decline in his performance.

"Once upon a time, we thought about when the national record could be broken, the Asian men's sprint record was Chinese, but when you get the world record, the result drops a little bit, and people can't be tolerant of you.

What we see of you is a victory, a championship, a record! And when you fail to achieve people's hopes, many people forget that athletes are not gods, no matter how talented they are, no matter how stable their results are, there will be a day when their performance will decline.

Su Zu's coach Li Zhizhong said that this is the reason why Su Zu took the initiative to adjust the rhythm, but everyone didn't understand, so is it ...... wait until one day Su Zu can't run, is injured, his grades have declined, and he has retired? ”

A domestic netizen once had such a comment on Yu Suzu's harsh requirements recently, and many people clicked the support button.

And at this moment, Su Zu doesn't know about the remarks of some sunspot trolls on the Internet. Or, even if he really knew, he wouldn't bother.

What he is thinking about at the moment is how to continue to run the next race after race, until next month's World Championships, to train for the competition, to thoroughly familiarize himself with the new rhythm, and to turn all the tricks into instinct in his body.

Only in this way can he continue to improve and surpass.

The 2007 World Championships is undoubtedly the most important race of his career, and for Suzu now, it is much more difficult for him to run the World Championships in Osaka than he did in Athens for the first time in 2004.

At that time, he was a fledgling and was setting records with every step forward.

And now he has carried the expectations of countless people, and the burden of thousands of pounds falls on his shoulders.

For more than a month, Su Zu also understood that he had reached the most critical moment, and now these rumors are nothing, but if he loses the World Championships, I am afraid it will have some impact on him in the future.

Love is deep, hate is deep. Su Zu experienced Liu Yangyu's retirement turmoil, and also learned some things about other athletes in the eighties and nineties from the mouth of the coach and other athletes.

It's not that the Chinese people are not tolerant enough, it's just that at a certain point in time, everyone can't accept it, but all this, over time, almost everyone can understand.

"I'm not just running for myself!"

Su Zu already understood this, and now, it's time to forget about the previous honor and lower his mind again to compete!

It's no longer Powell, Gatlin, Tyson Gay who is my opponent, it's everybody who stands on the same starting line as me, no matter what their best score is, they're going to be my rivals.

Beat them, win the championship, that's what I'm going to do next!

With the live broadcast introducing the athletes who participated in the competition, the audience at the Stade de France cheered!