On the morning of July 13.

The Carlo Zechini Olympic Stadium, a seating capacity of more than 10,000 spectators, is packed.

After the start of the 10th World Junior Championships in 2004, a large number of spectators from the local city of Grosseto and other surrounding regions poured into Grosseto, and even many of them were athletes who were visiting Italy to watch the games.

Although the level of the World Youth Championships is not as good as the World Championships, the biennial World Youth Athletics Championships still makes the citizens of Grosseto feel high and extremely boiling.

Many small cities in Europe have a very special sports tradition, and there are many competitions every year, in the community, between cities, and in the whole country, and because of this, competitions have become a very important way of training.

In particular, some of the inter-community and street competitions are simple in the field, but the participation of both the athletes and the ordinary spectators on the sidelines is very high.

Nie Fangping stood on the side of the sports, looking at the dense crowd of spectators in the stadium, there were many enthusiastic spectators who didn't even have seats, and they squeezed towards the front as much as possible, and couldn't help but sigh slightly in their hearts.

Since arriving in Italy, what I have seen and heard abroad for the first time may be a little biased, but the enthusiasm for track and field events in Europe abroad is really high.

Now many of the IAAF's Golden League and Grand Prix are hosted by some traditional track and field towns, and even he has heard that I don't know which country comes, there is a small town that regularly holds an international pole vault competition every year, attracting pole vaulters from all over the world to participate.

Compared with the sports atmosphere in many places in Europe, especially in athletics, there is undoubtedly a lot worse in China. Except for some large-scale sports meetings where the whole people are mobilized, there are not too many people who really like to watch simple track and field competitions.

One of them is publicity, and no one has cultivated a long-term atmosphere, and the other is the personal strength of the athletes, and the audience who is interested in watching track and field competitions has some understanding of track and field, and it is easy to compare it with the level seen in China at the highest level in the world. Boredom, after a few disappointments, it is much less attractive to the audience.

"Coach Nie, what do you think of Ye Qin's state, is there a chance to compete for medals?"

Watching Ye Qin and the other runners walk onto the track of the men's 400-meter preliminaries, feeling the cheers of the spectators on both sides of the side, Zhou Bin glanced at Nie Fangping slightly sideways and asked with a smile.

On July 12, the World Youth Championships officially opened.

In the women's 5,000m and men's 10,000m races on the opening day, Ethiopia's Messeri Mekam and Uganda's Boniface won their respective events, making the highlight of the evening.

Sun Weiwei, a player who was favored by the Chinese team before the game, did not perform well in the women's 5000m race, only won the fourth place and missed the medal.

The Chinese team has one less chance to compete for medals, and although there are a few points left, the pressure on Zhou Bin's shoulders is still very high.

Like him, Nie Fangping's spirits were quite high in the first two days of coming to Italy, but as the game approached, Nie Fangping gradually returned to his previous calm.

After all, he is not a young man, and when he reaches a certain stage, he may begin to be a little curious about many things, but he can still distinguish the importance of the things in front of him.

"It can't be said that there is no chance at all."

Hearing Zhou Bin ask like this, Nie Fangping raised his eyebrows slightly, and there was nothing perfunctory, but said very directly, "But the strength and level of other players should not be underestimated, first observe and see Ye Qin's performance and state in the 400 meters, maybe there will be a trade-off later." By the way, in this preliminaries, Ye Qinke met an old opponent. ”

If Ye Qin was in front of him, neither Zhou Bin nor Nie Fangping would easily discuss this topic, after all, the athletes began to discuss the rankings before they participated in the competition, which added pressure to people.

Now that Ye Qin has played, Zhou Bin, as the leader of the World Youth Championships, is not a good thing to discuss with coach Nie Fangping about the state and performance of the athletes. Moreover, even if he is familiar with Ye Qin, even if he has some worries, it is better to pass it on through his own head coach than for him, the team leader, to speak rashly.

"Old rivals?"

Zhou Bin looked up at the arena with some surprise, among the top seven runners at the 400-meter starting line who were about to start the race, there were people of all colors, in addition to Ye Qin, who he was most familiar with, there was also a black player who seemed to be of mixed race, who looked quite familiar.

"It's ...... Last year's World Junior Championships men's 400m champion, that Sudanese athlete?! Zhou Bin thought for a while, and suddenly seemed to remember who the other party was.

"Well, it's him." Nie Fangping nodded, "When I was in the World Junior Championships last year, you should have seen it, and when I got the list of contestants, Ye Qin mentioned this person to me. ”

Nie Fangping didn't know this player before, but after getting the competition list, Ye Qinyou mentioned this person to him, and he noticed it.

Abubakr Ali, Sudanese men's 400m track and field athlete, won the men's 400m at the 2003 World Junior Championships with a time of 46.10 seconds. In that game, Ye Qin was 47.23 seconds, more than 1 second behind, lost to the opponent, and won the bronze medal in the men's 400m at the World Junior Championships.

"This athlete is very good." Zhou Bin nodded, the age gap between Abubakr Ali and Ye Qin is not large, and he is also a talented men's 400m athlete, but in last year's World Junior Championships, he almost won the men's 400m championship at that time by winning other players. It's just that I don't know what kind of performance the other party will have when I come to the World Youth Championships again after more than a year.

Ye Qin stood in front of the starting line of the men's 400m preliminaries, looking at Abubakr Ali, who was standing in the sixth lane in front of him, he did not expect to bump into each other in the first round of the men's 400m preliminaries, and the two were assigned to a preliminaries group.

Seven preliminaries group, out of forty or fifty players, two were divided into a preliminaries group, which is not high, it can be said to be a coincidence.

There are three rounds of the men's 400m at the World Junior Championships, including the preliminaries, semi-finals and final.

At 10:10 a.m. on July 13, the men's 400m heats were held, with a total of 48 athletes from 40 countries competing in seven preliminary groups.

At 15:20 p.m. on July 14, the men's 400m semifinals, a total of three semi-final groups, the top three players in each group in the preliminary round, and the top three players in addition to the top three in each group, a total of 24 players participated in the semifinals.

At 20:45 on the evening of July 15, the men's 400m final, the top two in each group in the semifinals, and the other two best runners participated.

Meeting Abu Bakr Ali, this first preliminaries naturally meant a lot to Yechin.

However, although Ye Qin recognized the other party, judging from the time he checked in and queued up, Abu Bakr Ali obviously did not know him. Although they competed in the men's 400m together last year, just as Chinese people look at many black athletes with face blindness, they also look at Asians with certain faces. And Abu Bakr Ali won almost comfortably at the time, so naturally he doesn't have much memory of his defeated generals.

And Ye Qin, when he saw the other party, the blood in his whole body instantly boiled.

He won the bronze medal at the World Junior Championships and was the third place, but in fact, the runner-up in the two races, he barely remembers what they looked like now, only the champion, the first person to cross the finish line, he remembers very clearly.

After coming to the World Youth Championships, the first thing Ye Qin learned about was several opponents encountered at the World Junior Championships last year, including the men's 200m champion Yusse Bote, who had already asked from the Jamaican men's 100m athlete when he watched the training before the game, and the other party did not seem to come to Grosseto to participate in the World Youth Championships because of the preparation for the Olympic Games.

And the men's 400m champion of the World Junior Championships, Abu Bakr Ali of Sudan, is standing in front of him at this moment.

Ye Chin will never forget the scene when he cried after the defeat to Abubakr Ali, it was the first time he felt the strength of the top players in the same age group, and he didn't have a temper at all.

But now, a year has passed.

He's improved a lot, he's got a lot of improvement, and he's really trying to get back on the field.

Moreover, even if he can't win, he wants to take a serious run with the other party again, test his own level of progress, and also see the strength of the other party.

However, although Ye Qin wanted to let go of the preliminaries, he had a good competition with Abubakr Ali, but before going on the field, Nie Fangping still took the trouble to instruct him that in the 400-meter race, if it is not necessary, it is absolutely not necessary to run too hard, and it is best to have reservations.

His goal is to advance to the semi-finals of the next round and then finally to the final. Before that, the competition does not need to go all out, and the first goal is to secure a place in the promotion.

Because the schedule of the World Youth Championships is very similar to the World Junior Championships, several of the men's 200m and men's 400m races that Ye Qin participated in were held on the same day, and even more troublesome than the World Junior Championships.

The main thing is on July 15, the day of the men's 400m final.

In addition to the men's 400m final in the evening, the men's 200m heats and semifinals also began on this day.

The men's 200m race is also a three-round race, with the preliminaries starting at 9:30 a.m. on July 15, the semi-finals at 16:30 p.m. on July 15, and the final at 16 p.m. on July 16.

This means that Yechin will face his biggest physical challenge on July 15.

The most he has encountered in his previous competitions is two, such as the 200m heats and the 400m final, which are played on the same day, but three races a day, which is definitely not a small pressure on his physical fitness.

Although the sprint race is short, every competition basically requires the body to fully burst out to the highest level, even if the semi-finals of the preliminaries are reserved, but this intensity is not low, and it is likely to affect Ye Qin's physical condition in the men's 400m final at the end.

Ye Qin also knows the problem explained by Nie Fangping, in the training mode of training by competition, training while playing, there is rarely such a situation, it can be said that if you don't want to give up in two games, if you are not careful, there may be a situation where both ends are empty.

His first goal now should be his main event men's 400m, if he can't catch it, he can consider giving up the men's 200m, but Ye Qin doesn't want to give up, now that he has signed up, he feels that he should go all out to give it a try.

Championships, rankings, Olympic results, old rivals, these are all things he needs to beat and win. 8)