Varina stepped closer and gave Zhang Guan an American hug. In the 2006 Golden League, the two played each other six times in a few months, and they naturally became very familiar with each other. It can be said that the two of them are both friends and competitors.

"It's been a long time since I've seen Zhang Guan, congratulations first, and you broke the world record! I really didn't expect humans to be able to run so fast, 9.56 seconds, I think you've surpassed the limits of humans. Varina spoke.

"Thank you." Zhang Guan replied with a smile.

Varina gestured to the two behind him and said, "Merritt and Neville, you've seen them before. ”

Zhang Guan greeted Merritt and Neville, while Varina continued: "I thought that after saying goodbye to track and field for so long, you might not be able to find the feeling of competition, but now it seems that my worries are unnecessary, I think you are back to your best now, right?" ”

"You guessed it, I should be in the best shape now!" Zhang Guan said.

Varina had a look on her face, and there was a gleam in his eyes. Just listen to him continue: "That's great! I've been looking forward to playing against you in the more than two years since you left the athletics scene, and I'm stronger now than I was two years ago! ”

"We'll see you in the final, then." Zhang Guan also smiled: "I won't show mercy to my subordinates at that time." ”

"Of course, being able to compete with you at your peak is something that makes sense to me. I hope you can be in the same form as you were in yesterday's 100m final. Varina looked at the time as she spoke, and continued, "The game is about to start, we'll see you in the finals, good luck!" ”

Looking at the back of Varina's departure, a feeling of excitement emerged in Zhang Guan's heart.

Zhang Guan is very fortunate to meet an opponent like Varina, who is hungry for victory, and he hopes to overcome stronger opponents through his own efforts, such a talent is a true athlete.

……

A few minutes later, the preliminaries for the men's 400-meter dash began. As with other sprint events, the level of competitors is uneven, and there are many athletes who are here to play soy sauce, so for the strong athletes, the preliminaries are not very difficult.

In the preliminaries, if you can run under 45 seconds, you have a good chance of securing the top spot in the group, and if you run under 45.50 seconds, you have a good chance of entering the next round.

In the first group, France's De Juan and the United States' David Neville clearly dominated the group, and neither of them gave it their all, with De Joan topping the group in 45.12 seconds, Neville finishing second in 45.22 seconds and a Cuban runner in third. The fourth-placed Belgian ran 45.43 and still has a chance to advance to the next round. The other people have already run close to 46 seconds or even run outside 46 seconds, obviously unable to escape the fate of elimination.

The strongest player in the second group is Bahamian star Chris Brown, who played against Brown in the 400m race for the first time in the Golden League. In the competition, Brown was in very good shape, his movement rhythm was very fast, and several other powerful players spared no effort to compete for the top three, and finally four players in this group entered the 45-second or less. Although the fourth-place Congolese athlete did not advance immediately, he had a good time of 44.89 seconds and would definitely be able to get an additional qualifying place.

Zhang Guan played in the third group, which also attracted the attention of almost all the contestants. In the 400-meter sprint, Zhang Guan also did not appear in the international arena for two years, although yesterday's 100-meter breaking the world record proved that Zhang Guan's competitive state is very good, and also eliminated a lot of doubts, but the 400-meter sprint and the 100-meter sprint are two different events after all, and playing well in the 100-meter sprint does not mean that he can play well in the 400-meter sprint, so there are still many people who have doubts about Zhang Guan.

The starter fired a gunshot, and the race began, Zhang Guan still ran in the same way as before, and after the start, he started the incomplete sprint activation, and ran the first 300 meters at a relatively uniform speed.

In the eyes of the masters of the 400-meter sprint, the speed of opening the crown to activate the skill of incomplete sprint is not too fast. After all, the speed after opening the skill is only 85% of the normal sprint, and this 15% speed loss is still obvious in the world's top competition. But this is only the preliminary round after all, and the level of the players in Zhang Guan's group is relatively low, even if Zhang Guan is not fully activated in the sprint, he still seems to be faster than the other players.

Athlete preparation area on the sidelines.

American player Neville said: "Zhang Guan's speed doesn't seem to be fast!" Maybe he was just bluffing? He is yet to regain his peak form in the 400-meter dash. ”

"You're wrong, I think the current Zhang Guan has returned to his peak state!" Varina shook his head, and continued: "Don't forget the special running style that Zhang Guan used, he ran at an almost uniform speed in the first 300 meters, and sprinted at a very fast speed in the next 100 meters. His running style is something that no one in the world can imitate. ”

Among the players here, Varina is the one who has fought Zhang Guan the most times, but he has never won a victory, Varina is overtaken by Zhang Guan in the final straight sprint every time, and even several times before the finish line, Varina has already started to prepare to celebrate the victory, and then was overtaken by Zhang Guan, so Varina remembers Zhang Guan's running style the most.

And the situation is just as Varina said, in the first 300 meters, the running style of other runners has changed, only Zhang Guan is tepidly running at a constant speed. However, the speed of the other players in this group is not fast, although Zhang Guan used incomplete sprint activation, he is still the third to enter the straight run, and the gap between him and the first and second places is not large.

Next, Zhang Guan accelerated his sprint, overtook the people in front of him a second later, rushed to the front, and then qualified first in the group amid the cheers of the audience.

Zhang Guan's final time was 44.66 seconds, which obviously retains a lot of strength. In this group, except for Zhang Guan, only two players ran under 46 seconds, and the other players all scored 46 seconds, which does show that this group is the weakest group.

In the next few sets of competitions, the other two members of the US team, Varina and Merritt, also successfully advanced to the next round, in addition to well-known players such as British stars Ronnie and Steele, Trinidad and Tobago's Kaul, etc., also qualified.

Since Zhang Guan had to compete in the preliminary round of the men's 200-meter dash and the qualifying round of the triple jump about an hour later, he did not leave, but prepared to return to the locker room for a short break.

Just in front of the locker room door, Zhang Guan met a familiar figure.

"It's Liu Feiren!" Zhang Guan suddenly remembered that after the men's 200-meter sprint preliminaries, the next competition was the men's 110-meter hurdles, and Liu Feiren would appear in the final group of finales! (To be continued.) )