The final of the men's 400m dash was held on the final day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships, while the final of the men's 4x400m was held on the same day, with only an hour and a half between the two races.

For the U.S. team, there were two options for the day, one was to go all out for the gold medal in the 400-meter dash, and the other was to strategically forgo the 400-meter dash and sprint for the gold medal in the 4x400-meter dash.

In the 400m race, apart from Zhang Guan, the strongest athlete in the 400m final should be defending champion Irene Franceco.

Francico is a Grenadian athlete who reached the final of the 400m at the Athens Olympics and finished fourth, when he was arguably the best athlete in the world with a time of 44.66 seconds.

Francico, of course, was aiming to defend his title, and he thought his biggest opponent would be Campbell, but he didn't expect to win a title halfway through, and the semi-final time of 45.63 seconds was not very high, but he could already win a medal at this level.

What makes Francico care more is Zhang Guan's special running style, Francesco can feel that Zhang Guan did not do his best in the semifinals, that is, there is still a lot of room for improvement, thinking of Zhang Guan's 45.50 seconds of running abroad last year, Franceco is still very weak-minded.

Francico's 400-meter running method is more special, he is an athlete who mainly runs in the early stage, he starts to run fast from the start, and then the second 100 meters will still be a fast run, and the third 100 meters he is also very fast, and then lead into the last 100 meters, but in the last 100 meters, due to the physical exertion in the early stage, the speed will slow down. His final 100 meters took more than 12 seconds. There aren't many top athletes who use this style of running.

In the final of the Athens Olympics, Francico was the first athlete to enter the final 100 meters, and in the final 100 meters, Francico was 0.2 seconds faster than Varina of the United States, but he only finished fourth, because Francico spent 0.86 seconds more than Varina in the final 100 meters, and 0.66 seconds slower in the back and forth.

In terms of pertinence, Francico's running style is very restrained by those athletes who are not physically strong, because in the last 100 meters, everyone can't run fast, so Franceco's advantage in front is enough to win the championship; But if you meet an athlete with very good physical fitness. In the last 100 meters, Franceco will be overtaken.

Zhang Guan is clearly the best athlete in the world at sprinting in the final 100 meters.

……

At half past nine in the evening Moscow time, the final of the men's 400-meter dash officially began.

A gunshot rang out, and the athlete's start and ability to go smoothly, after all, it was a 400-meter sprint race, and almost no athletes would rush to run. But the game has just begun, and many coaches have a clue.

"The Americans have given up the 400-meter dash!" Director Yu sighed lightly.

On the field, the American runners who participated in the finals did not give their all, but ran as if they were running a practice race. Apparently gave up on the gold medal. For the U.S. team, who will compete in the 4x400m final in an hour and a half, are reluctant to spend their energy on the 400m dash.

Zhang Guan still runs tepidly at his own pace, while Franceco follows his usual running style. Ran fast in the early stages.

Francico took the lead into the straight, and in this segment he was about 0.3 seconds faster than Zhang.

"I'm on the straight, and I'm going to try to take advantage of that distance." Francico was even faster.

After all, straights are easier to run than corners. Even if Zhang Guan didn't change his pace, the speed was still slightly faster than the corner, but compared to Francecot in acceleration. It's still a little slower. It's just that Franceco's explosiveness is more average in the 400m, which also affects his performance in the straight.

This section is the fastest section of the 400-meter runners, and the participating athletes are generally able to run up to 11 seconds, but due to the starting position, the athletes seem to have a front and a back, which greatly affects the enjoyment of the race.

At the end of the 200 meters, Francico slowed down a little and began to adjust the rhythm. Although Franceco's explosiveness is average, his cornering skills are still very good, and he is very good at accelerating in corners, especially in the third 100 meters, and his speed is definitely the top class of athletes in the world.

Under normal circumstances, Francico's third 100m would have been around 11 seconds, and his sprint point was around 230m, which was his last chance to widen the gap between him and his rivals.

"This Francico is running so fast in front! According to this calculation, it has been more than a second and a half for him to pull down the crown in the first 300 meters! But fortunately, with his running style, he definitely didn't have the strength to sprint in the last 100 meters. Director Yu only frowned slightly, but he was very relieved about Zhang Guan, because he knew that Zhang Guan could overtake Franceco with the last 100 meters of sprint.

The professionals watching the game also understood that Franceco's biased early running style must be slow in the last 100 meters, while Zhang Guan's final sprint was surprisingly fast, so the focus of this race became how much advantage Francico could achieve in the first 300 meters, and whether his advantage could make up for the disadvantage in the last 100 meters.

The so-called insiders look at the doorway, and the laymen look at the excitement. Compared to professional sports coaches and athletes, the audience was obviously a group of laymen, they only saw Francico running fast in front of him, they only saw Francico running far ahead of the other athletes, the first to rush into the final straight track, and therefore, they gave Francico a cheer.

"Franceco! Ahead! Sprint...... Francico! The commentator at the scene shouted Francico's name loudly, and at this time, Zhang Guan also entered the last 100 meters. There is a gap of more than 1.5 seconds between the two.

In the 400-meter sprint, the difference of less than 0.5 seconds is easy to make up for in the final 100-meter sprint; If it is a difference of less than 1 second, although it is a bit difficult, it is possible to turn the tables at the last moment; But with a difference of 1.5 seconds, it is almost impossible to overtake.

Franceco's final 100 meters were slow, but he could run to 12.5 seconds, which was much better than the 14 seconds away from the last 100 meters. If he wants to close the gap of 1.5 seconds, Zhang Guan needs to run under 11 seconds in the last 100 meters.

In the 400-meter sprint, it is extremely difficult to run 11 seconds in the last 100 meters, in addition to the athlete's need for extraordinary explosiveness, the athlete also needs to have a relatively good physical reserve in the previous 300 meters.

Zhang Guan does not lack these two points, he has them. After all, his physical exertion in the first 300 meters was only half of his physical exertion, so his final 100-meter sprint of 11 seconds was almost a foregone conclusion.

……

Entering the straight runway, Francico already felt a little overwhelmed, he knew that he was going to slow down immediately, and then he had to rely on inertia and strong will to hold on to the finish line.

"With such a big gap, Zhang Guan shouldn't be able to surpass me!" The thought flashed through Francico's mind, but at the same time, the narrator suddenly shouted Zhang Guan's name!

"Woo ......" The audience in the stadium first made a startled sound, followed by strong shouts and cheers.

"What's wrong?" Francico felt the change in the atmosphere of the scene, but he did not look back, his eyes were firmly fixed on the finish line, because he felt that his physical strength was running out, so he had to concentrate, people are more likely to be resilient when they are focused, so that they can continue to maintain a certain speed and rush to the finish line.

At this moment, Zhang Guan caught up from behind and went hand in hand with Francico, and this neck and neck did not last even a second, Zhang Guan directly overtook Francico.

"It's Zhang Guan! It seems to be faster than in the semi-finals! He didn't give his best in the semi-finals! Francico was a little flustered, and what he feared most was an athlete who could finish the sprint.

Francico's physical strength has bottomed out, and at this time he is simply unable to maintain the original explosive power, and his early running style is destined to cause this result. For Franceco, every step forward now feels so difficult, every step forward is gritting his teeth and persevering, and every step forward is a struggle between willpower and physical strength.

In this physical state, if you are in a leading position, it will be easier for willpower to gain the upper hand, and if you are surpassed, willpower will definitely loosen, and the feeling of physical exhaustion will become more and more obvious.

Francico still worked very hard, but his speed involuntarily slowed down, especially the moment when Zhang Guan overtook him, his original confidence in winning suffered a heavy blow, which was directly reflected in the speed.

"Zhang Guan! Transcendence! He completed the comeback at the last minute! Race to the finish line! Rush the line! The commentator let out a sigh of relief and continued: "Congratulations to Zhang Guan for winning the men's 400-meter dash!" ”

At this time, everyone turned their eyes to the results column, Zhang Guan won his first indoor 400-meter dash championship with a time of 44.87 seconds, and ran under 45 seconds again, Francesco 45.43 seconds, more than half a second slower than Zhang Guan, and the third place was Bahamian Brown, with a final time of 45.78 seconds.

The World Indoor Athletics Championships 400m dash champion and 45-second time under 45 seconds, Zhang Guan can already enter the top 20 in the 400m dash rankings, and he is already eligible to register for the 400m race in the Athletics Golden League.

The U.S. team, which gave up the 400-meter sprint individual event, also won the 4x400-meter race.

……

With the end of the last event, the women's 4x400m, the World Indoor Athletics Championships has also come to an end. The host Russia ranked first with 8 golds, 5 silvers and 5 bronzes, while the United States team was second only to Russia with 7 golds, 4 silvers and 2 bronzes, and tied for third with China, Ukraine and Ethiopia, all with two gold medals. (To be continued.) )

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