August 21, National Stadium.

It's the penultimate day of competition at the Olympics, and today in athletics, six gold medals are on the horizon.

The women's 20km race walk in the morning has ended, and in the evening, the first two gold medals were awarded in the women's javelin throw final and the women's 200m final. Half of the six gold medals have been taken away by the competitors, and the remaining three gold medals are still to be determined.

The three gold medals are the men's triple jump, the men's 400m and the men's 110m hurdles, and Zhang Guan will compete in the finals of two of them, which means that Zhang Guan could win two gold medals today.

At the same time, the men's 4 x 100 meters preliminaries will also be held today, Zhang Guan will also appear on the field, but compared to other individual events, the audience obviously does not have any hope for the 4 x 100 meters, although Zhang Guan's personal ability is outstanding, but the other three players of the Chinese team are at the level of the Olympic B standard, and others such as the Americans, Jamaica team, the British team and Trinidad and Tobago, there is no shortage of world-class athletes, entering the final, is already the best expectation for the Chinese team, As for the medals, that's just a matter of thinking.

Before the relay race, Zhang Guan had to participate in another race, that is, the semifinals of the men's 800m.

A total of 24 athletes will reach the 800m semi-finals, with the top two finishers and the other two best finishers in the group advancing to the finals. The 24-in-8 rule may seem a bit cruel, but it is not very difficult for a really strong player to get promoted.

In terms of semi-final grouping, the organizers of the event also deliberately assigned several favorites to win the championship in different groups, and Zhang Guan's opponents in the same group were relatively mediocre, and in the game, Zhang Guan was still running in front of 700 meters, sprinting in the back 100 meters, and then winning the first place in the group.

This running style has become Zhang Guan's signature, especially after Zhang Guan won the 1500-meter gold medal and broke the 1500-meter world record, coaches and training experts from various countries have begun to study Zhang Guan's special running style, which is only a few days away from the 1500-meter race, and someone has written a corresponding paper on Zhang Guan's running style, which is ready to be published in the near future.

At this time, everyone only saw the power of Zhang Guan's running style, and only saw Zhang Guan breaking the record and winning the championship with this running style, but no one realized that this running style was completely impossible to replicate. Almost all experts believe that since Zhang Guan can do it, then there will definitely be a second person and a third person who can also do the same thing, and can also copy Zhang Guan's unique running style.

……

After the semi-finals of the 800 meters, after a short break, Zhang Guan ushered in the men's 4 x 100 meters relay race.

In this event, the national team's goal is to reach the final, which doesn't sound like a difficult one, because the national team has a crown, and the sprint event should be able to kill all sides. But in reality, there are too many uncertainties in the relay race, and the opponents of the national team are very strong.

In fact, in the previous Olympic Games, the Chinese team was not even qualified to participate in the 4x100m relay race. Unlike the individual race, where you meet the Olympic entry criteria, you can compete, while the relay race is the average of the two best times achieved in a certain period of time and you are ranked in the top 16 in the world to qualify for the Olympic Games.

In the case of this Olympic Games, for example, the two best results must be achieved in the IAAF-sanctioned competitions between January 1, 2007 and July 16, 2008, and then the tie value must be calculated for ranking. In other words, one good result is not enough, you must have two good results to be able to enter the Olympic Games.

During this period of time, there are very few track and field competitions with relay races, and many international competitions are only individual events, not relay events, and only some World Championships or Continental Games will have relay events. The strength of the national team in this event is relatively weak, and high-level competitions are not eligible to participate, so there are fewer opportunities to participate in relay races, and there are fewer opportunities to run two good results. Therefore, in the previous Olympic Games, the national team was not eligible to participate in the Olympic relay race at all.

However, being in the top 16 does not mean that you will be able to participate in the Olympics, because there are also reasons to consider the host country, and if the host country also competes in this event, then there will be one less place. Of course, in every Olympic Games, there are some top 16 countries that do not make it to the event.

This time, the national team is the host, and it has a place congenitally, and for a team that is not eligible for the Olympics on weekdays, advancing to the final is already a relatively high goal.

In addition to the host Chinese team, the United States, Jamaica, Great Britain, France, Germany, Brazil, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, South Africa, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Japan and Thailand participated in the relay race.

In terms of strength, the United States, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, and Canada will definitely qualify for the six teams, which are basically composed of the world's top sprinters. Germany, South Africa, Italy and Brazil are also not to be underestimated, and the Chinese team will compete with these four teams for the other two promotion places, which is also very difficult, while Japan, Thailand, the Netherlands, France and Poland have a bit of soy sauce flavor.

In this competition, the other three players sent by the national team are Wen Yongyi, Zhang Peiming and Hu Kai, which is already the strongest lineup that the national team can send at present.

The relay race was divided into two groups, and the top eight teams in the overall score went to the finals. So the position of the relay race is not important, the final result is the most important. Even if you finish eighth in a group, as long as you finish first in another group, you can still advance to the finals.

The favourites to win the title, the United States, have been drawn in Group 1, which also includes Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, South Africa, Poland, Brazil, the Netherlands and Japan. With the exception of Poland, the Netherlands and Japan, which are slightly weaker, the rest are all strong teams. Needless to say, Trinidad and Tobago is second only to Jamaica in Central and South America, better than many European teams, Nigeria is the number one team in Africa, South Africa and Brazil, they are also Olympic A standard athletes, although not as good as the previous teams, but also very strong.

The U.S. team was runners-up at the last Olympics and lost to Great Britain by 0.01 seconds at the European Games in Athens. The U.S. team is also the world record holder in this event, with the U.S. team led by Carl Lewis setting a world record of 37.40 seconds in 4 x 100 meters.

This time, of course, the Americans are aiming to win the title, and their biggest opponent will undoubtedly be a Jamaican side led by Usain Bolt and Powell. (To be continued.) )