At 9:35 a.m. local time in Moscow on August 14, the men's 400-meter semifinals officially began.

In the first Group A competition, American veteran Jeremy Varina, who has been in good form this season, won the top spot in the group relatively easily, and successfully advanced to tomorrow's 400 finals.

However, in addition to Varina's successful entry into the final, the other three players who occupied the other three spots in the group were somewhat unexpected.

They are Masrasi from Saudi Arabia, Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic, and Henriquez of Brazil.

The other three athletes in the first group who advanced to the finals are not only all post-90s players, but also all newcomers who are participating in the World Championships for the first time.

Before the game, it was believed by major media that he would compete with Varina for the top spot in the group, and even the third place winner of the London Olympics, Trinidad and Tobago's Gordon, only finished sixth in the group, thus being blocked from the final.

It is also worth mentioning that the only Russian athlete to reach the semi-finals, Joseph Dzhugashvili, finished fifth in the group by 0.03 seconds, also missing out on the final.

In fact, as early as a day ago, when the grouping of the 400-meter semi-finals was just announced, coaches, athletes, and major news media from various countries saw that the Russian organizing committee wanted to "escort" its own athletes to the finals.

Although the organizing committee allocated all five athletes who reached the final of the London Olympics to Group B, it helped Joseph Dzhugashvili to "clear" the obstacles on the way to the final. However, what they didn't expect was that the three post-90s youngsters who were unknown before the game completed a "collective outbreak" and shattered the Russians' wishful thinking.

Although the early exit of the local athletes disappointed the Russian audience at the scene, only a few minutes later, tens of thousands of spectators at the scene shifted their attention to the upcoming "Group of Death" competition.

At the same time, tens of thousands of Chinese viewers sat in front of their televisions and watched the live broadcast of CCTV's sports channel; Or watch the real-time broadcast of major video websites through computers and mobile phones.

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At 9:38, the 8 athletes who participated in the 400 semi-finals Group B entered the competition venue under the leadership of the staff.

Immediately afterwards, the on-site commentator at the Luzhniki Stadium began to take turns in Russian and English, introducing the personal information of the eight participating athletes one by one: "Track 1, Stephen Solomon, from Australia......"

Although the athletes assigned to the first three tracks all made it to the final of last year's London Olympics, the audience's response to the commentators was a little too flat. It wasn't until the narrator introduced Rashawn Merritt on Track 4 and Killarney James on Track 5 that the enthusiasm of the audience began to heat up. But it's just about heating up.

There is also a certain reason why this situation occurs.

Compared with the 100 meters, which are the most popular in the world, there is a big "gap" between the attention of the 400 meters and the strength and number of top athletes in the event.

And since the retirement of American superstar Michael Johnson, there has never been an athlete with real "dominant" level strength, but more like a chaotic era of "separation" like the Three Kingdoms era in China.

Although it is easy to create "heroes" in the era of "chaos", the lack of "kings" will also make it difficult for this project to really attract the attention of sports fans.

The strength of LaSean Merritt and Killarney James is indeed higher than other competitors, but they are at least a notch behind the former king Michael Johnson. After all, even their personal best, which is more than 0.6 seconds away from the world record held by Johnson.

However, when the commentator began to introduce the competitors of Track 7, the enthusiasm of the audience finally reached a **.

"The contestant in the 7th track is Feng Quan from China. Not only is he the fastest man on the planet, but he also won the decathlon the day before yesterday with a world record time. It is no exaggeration to say here that the wind is the strongest track and field athlete in the world. ”

Although the Russian accent of the on-site narrator was very strong in English, it was difficult for Feng Quan to fully understand what he was saying. But seeing the crazy shouts of the audience at the scene still made his heart surge.

So, like a king introducing his people to worship, Feng Quan raised his right hand and waved to the spectators in the surrounding stands.

After seeing this scene, except for Van Niekerk in track 8, the faces of the other six participating athletes were all full of disdain. In their opinion, although the commentator vigorously preaches that the wind is the "strongest track and field athlete" in the world, it is not too much. However, he, a "newcomer" who participated in the 400m individual event for the first time, left the most impression on them was just an act of "playing tickets".

In particular, London Olympic champion Killarney James cast a disdainful look at Feng Quan's "arrogant" move. In his opinion, perhaps only he is qualified to enjoy the kind of "emperor" respect in the 400-meter race.

And Lashawn Merritt, who is also the top runner in the 400m, just expressed his disdain for the audience. After all, Feng Quan's score of nearly 44 seconds in the preliminaries has already shown that he has now been promoted to the ranks of the world's first-class 400m athletes. Moreover, in the depths of his heart, the main target of "revenge" is always the guy standing on his right side of the track.

After the on-site commentator introduced the personal information of all the participants, the athletes followed the instructions issued by the referee and stood on their respective running aids.

Immediately afterwards, as the referee sounded the starting pistol in his hand, the competition in the 400m semi-final (b) began.

As soon as the starting gun sounded, Lashawn-Merritt, who was on track 4, quickly completed the start like an arrow from the string.

Although the athletes participating in the 400m event are not at the same starting line, as a veteran of many years, Merritt, who has successfully completed the starting stage, only slightly tilted his head to look at Killarney James on his right, and he can be sure that he must have completed better than his opponent in the starting stage.

"Humph! Arrogant boy, you don't have the slightest chance this time......"

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PS: Semi-finals Group B Passage Situation:

(1) Stephen Solomon (AUS) London Olympic No. 8

(2) Chris Brown (Bahamas) 4th place at the London Olympics

(3) Santos (Dominican) London Olympic Games runner-up

(4) Rashawn-Merritt (USA) Champion 2008 Olympic Champion

(5) Killarney James (Grenada) 2012 London Olympic Champion

(6) Kevin Bolai (Belgium): 5th place in the London Olympics

(7) Wind full

(8) Van Niekerk (South Africa) R