7 May, 2005.

Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan, ushered in the annual track and field competition, since 1996 Osaka has been listed as a key track and field event by the IAAF, and an international competition approved by the IAAF will be held every year.

Especially this year, the IAAF has organized the various Golden League Super Grand Prix and so on scattered before into the IAAF World Athletics Tour.

There are two main levels of the tour, the first is the IAAF Golden League and the IAAF Super Grand Prix, and the second includes the IAAF Grand Prix and regionally licensed track and field events.

The IAAF World Athletics Tour features a total of 25 world-class athletics events, including six Golden League events, five Super Prix events and 14 Grand Prix races. Each year, there are also a number of regional licensing competitions organised by the six continental athletics federations, where athletes earn points rankings, and the final leader in the overall score advances to the annual World Athletics Finals.

The Grand Prix is awarded 10 points for the champion, the other athletes receive between 1 and 8 points depending on the final position, and the Golden League and Super Grand Prix have twice as many points as the regular Grand Prix.

In later generations, after 2010, the IAAF World Athletics Tour was replaced by the IAAF Diamond Federation and the IAAF World Challenge.

At this time, the Osaka Grand Prix, as one of the 14 Grand Prix, is a great promotion for a country's local athletics, and it is a good advantage to be able to improve yourself through the platform of the Grand Prix and the competition of the world's top athletes.

"This ...... Aren't there any athletes from other countries who come to compete? ”

On the warm-up track of Changju Stadium, Ye Qin had just done a simple warm-up activity, and got the list of games that would start in a few hours from Chen Zhongzhou, and he was a little confused for a while.

After leaving Xiushui No. 2 Middle School, he first returned to Yanjing, joined his team members such as Randy Hunter and Chen Zhongzhou, and then completed a few days of training in the training bureau, and then went to Shenghai City, found Liu Yangyu, Coach Sun Chaosheng and others, the two teams discussed the next itinerary together in Shenghai, and then came to Osaka, Japan to participate in the Grand Prix held on May 7.

This is the first time Ye Qin has participated in the Grand Prix, and it is also the first time to come to Japan, and at first he was curious about all aspects, but at this time, seeing that there were only 8 athletes in total, and the result was that Japanese athletes accounted for 4 places, he couldn't help but be a little surprised.

He also thought that the Grand Prix was the best in the world, but now it seems that it is not as many as he thought, but it is half of the local Japanese players.

"It's normal, I have five Japanese players in my group."

Liu Yangyu, who was also warming up together, came over after seeing Ye Qin in a daze with the competition list, glanced at Ye Qin's competition list, and said with a smile, "It's good to go to the next stop in Eugene and New York in the United States." ”

For example, in the men's 400m and men's 110m hurdles, Ye Qin and Liu Yangyu participated, but the Japanese players accounted for the majority in the competition, and the same was true in the men's 100m race. In addition to the main race, in the 100m event, there is a special group of five athletes composed entirely of Japanese athletes in the men's 100m.

"Brother Yang Yu, then this year's Grand Prix at Shenghai Station, can there be so many domestic players participating?" Ye Qin asked.

The IAAF 14 Grand Prix, this year's Shenghai Station also got the permission to hold it for the first time, but the time was in September, before Ye Qin was training in the national team, he had heard many people mention this matter.

Shenghai City sent an invitation to Liu Yangyu and him early, and on September 17, he wanted to attend the local Grand Prix to make a reputation.

"Maybe there were only two, and then there would be more people competing." Liu Yangyu said with some uncertainty.

As the first stop of the IAAF Grand Prix, Osaka is not in a hurry to start scoring at the beginning of the season, and it is located in East Asia, many athletes are far away, and the number of participants is often insufficient.

But in August and September, when the season is over, many athletes will seize the time to compete in various IAAF competitions to improve their rankings.

According to IAAF regulations, generally as the host city of the Grand Prix, a project has the right to recommend two athletes from its own country to participate, but if there are not enough participants, it can add domestic athletes to the event.

"That's it!" Ye Qin somewhat understands the meaning of the IAAF World Tour, these events are accumulating points, Ye Qin has not understood it at first, even if Chen Zhongzhou has had it once before, there are still a lot of questions.

Liu Yangyu smiled, patted Ye Qin's shoulder and said, "Although there are not many top international athletes who come to Osaka to compete, there are still many people, such as the 100-meter Olympic champion Jax Thelin, and your 400-meter Alan Francia from Grenada, who has run 44.47 seconds in personal PB, and the strength is still relatively strong." ”

Ye Qin nodded, thinking about it, although among the many players in the Osaka Grand Prix, the majority are mainly Japanese players, but this is not a problem of the event after all, it can only be said that one is a matter of time, at the beginning of the season, the athletes are still in a state of recovery, and the other is too far away, and many famous players are not ready to cross the ocean to compete at this time.

Of course, it is not true that there are no famous players, the Osaka Grand Prix is particularly attractive to American athletes, as well as Kenya and other countries, such as Jax Thelin, and Alan Johnson, who was the first person in the men's 110m hurdles before Liu Yangyu, etc., which have appeared in the Osaka Grand Prix.

"It's no wonder that the gap between Japan and us in track and field has become wider and wider over the years, and it's not for no reason, this is to invite international experts to be sparring partners for their own athletes."

Chen Zhongzhou also saw the list of competitions, and he knew more than Ye Qin, from the men's 100 meters, 400 meters, to the men's 110 meters hurdles and 400 meters hurdles, as well as the men's 1500 meters, men's 3000 meters steeplechase, the list of these competitions, Chen Zhongzhou has read them all, in the men's track event, no matter which one, Japanese athletes account for more than half, for him, it is also a little incredible.

In the men's 200m event at the IAAF Grand Prix, the competition is sometimes cancelled due to the number of competitors and the schedule, which is also a good thing for Yechin, because it is not easy to get the best individual results in both the 200m and 400m in one day.

Sun Chaosheng, who was communicating with Randy Hunter on the side, heard Chen Zhongzhou's emotion and smiled, "Zhongzhou, what you said is very pertinent, this is to attract international players to participate in the competition through high bonuses, and then work hard to push athletes from their own country to contact these high-level players and accumulate experience in the competition." Judging from the results, the effect is actually obvious. ”

From the late 90s to the present in 2005, Japan has made great progress in the men's sprint event, and has been firmly ranked first in the overall strength of men's sprinting in Asia for more than ten years. All aspects of research investment, holding competitions, follow-up talent training, etc., are all indispensable.

"We have applied to the IAAF to host the Shenghai Grand Prix since a few years ago, and this year's IAAF World Tour has finally approved the application.

Sun Chaosheng's understanding of Japan's domestic track and field events, especially the men's sprint sprint sprint event, is far more familiar than others because he has been competing since he began to participate in the competition a few years ago.