Running into 9.9 Seconds!

Although it was still August 21st in Athens, it was already August 22nd in China. Because it happened to be Saturday, many sports enthusiasts in China chose to stay up late to watch the Olympic Games. So even though it was already 1 a.m., there were still many viewers staying in front of their televisions, watching the Olympic Games.

In the provincial capital, the community where Zhang Guan lived was almost lit up with lights in every household. When an Olympic athlete emerged from the community, all the residents felt particularly honored, especially the idle aunties who would talk to anyone they met.

"Old Zhang, come over quickly, our son is on stage!" Zhang's mother called out softly, then heard the sound of flushing from the bathroom, and Zhang's father rushed out.

"It's about to start, why didn't you call me earlier!" Zhang's father sat on the sofa, still complaining to Zhang's mother.

"It's just beginning, I called you already. It's your fault for spending so much time in the toilet and sneaking a smoke in there," Zhang's mother's momentum seemed even stronger, immediately silencing Zhang's father.

Then the two stared at the TV, refusing to miss a single detail.

At the same time, in the land of abundance, Chen Lao also sat by the TV, watching the competition.

"Lao Chen, it's so late, you should go to bed. The doctor said..." Chen Lao's wife came out of the room, then saw Zhang Guan on the TV screen and suddenly stopped talking. She knew that the person on the TV was her husband's proudest disciple, and Chen Lao would never miss his competition.

The old lady looked nervously at Chen Lao, then quickly ran into the room, took some quick-acting heart pills in her hand. She was worried that her husband would be too excited, and his heart wouldn't be able to take it.

...

Inside the BBC studio, the camera focused on each athlete, and the host introduced each one.

"This is the American athlete, Shawn Crawford. His main event is the 200-meter sprint, but he also has championship-level strength in the sprint," the host said.

Erickson immediately followed, "That's right, Crawford will be the first in this group. The only suspense is what his final score will be."

"Obadeli Thompson, an athlete from Barbados. Many of you should have heard of Barbados. It's a country in the Caribbean and a member of the Commonwealth," the host introduced.

Erickson smoothly continued, "Obadeli Thompson holds the current world record for the fastest 100 meters, 9.69 seconds, but this result was achieved with a tailwind of 5.1 meters per second. His strength is definitely not as good as Crawford's, but he still has a good chance of causing trouble for Crawford."

"Vincent Lima from Brazil..."

"Akii Aliyu from Nigeria..."

The camera finally focused on Zhang Guan. Before the host could speak, Erickson preemptively said, "This is the Chinese athlete I just mentioned! I think everyone knows him without introduction. If you don't know him, you can take a look at the previous days' edition of The Times."

In Erickson's banter, the camera quickly moved to the next athlete.

...

The referee in charge of issuing commands had a small microphone, so his shout could be heard by people far away.

"On your marks... Set..."

The referee raised the starting gun, but before he could give the command, two athletes dashed out.

Two people false started!

The referee immediately stopped the race, signaling the athletes to prepare for the start again.

Zhang Guan returned to the starting line with a smile, and not far from him, another athlete who false started also walked back leisurely, smiling at Zhang Guan as he walked.

This time, both Zhang Guan and the athlete from Kazakhstan, Geradi Chenofay, false started.

Inside the BBC studio, the host introduced, "The two athletes who false started are Geradi Chenofay from Kazakhstan and Zhang Guan from China."

Erickson immediately said, "As I said before, in the preliminary or repechage rounds, athletes who are not confident in their abilities will choose to false start to gain a slight advantage of a few hundredths of a second. So it's obvious that these two Asians knew they had no hope of advancing, so they decided to use the tactic of false starting to take a gamble. Unfortunately, they didn't understand the rhythm of the European referees, so false starting turned into a false start."

On the field, Chenofay from Kazakhstan did intend to false start to gain some advantage. He felt that it was lucky to even make it to the second round, so he had to give it a try in the repechage round.

Zhang Guan, on the other hand, felt that his emotions were a bit too excited. He felt he needed to adjust appropriately, so he chose to take the initiative to false start and let his body adapt to the rhythm of the race. Surprisingly, through this false start, Zhang Guan's competitive state increased by another point, reaching 68 points.

So far, Zhang Guan didn't know the rules for increasing his competitive state, but he could clearly feel that the higher the number of his competitive state, the easier it was to achieve good results.

One minute later, the eight athletes were ready to start again.

Inside the BBC studio, the host said, "The athletes are ready, the race is about to begin."

After that, neither the host nor the two guests spoke, quietly waiting for the sound of the starting gun.

After the starting gun sounded, the host began his passionate commentary.

"They're off! Thompson had a good start, he's in the lead, Crawford starts to catch up, accelerating, accelerating, he's neck and neck with Thompson, Thompson accelerates again, who will be faster? They're still neck and neck! Oh, Crawford overtakes Thompson, Crawford! Thompson tries to catch up, but he can't, he can't catch up! Crawford is faster! He's now in the... second place!"

The last two words "second place" seemed to startle the host, almost sounding like a gasp.

According to the original script, he was supposed to say "he's now in the lead," but just as he was about to say "lead," he realized that Crawford was actually in second place.

One of the three favorites for the championship, Shawn Crawford, was only in second place!

And leading was a Chinese man, Zhang Guan!

Thompson turned out to be a wind-catching type of athlete, with a speed comparable to Crawford's. The host had been paying attention to the struggle between Crawford and Thompson all along, and only now did he notice that Zhang Guan had surged to the first position. This momentarily left the host in a daze.

"What's going on? Am I dreaming? A Chinese man is in the lead? Crawford is actually behind a Chinese man! How is this possible? A Chinese man in the lead, this is absurd! What's the name of this Chinese man again? Damn, I don't even know the name of the athlete, how am I supposed to commentate?" The host's mind was filled with countless questions.

Not only the BBC host, but also the hosts of other TV stations didn't know how to commentate. Their original focus was on Crawford, but now that Crawford was behind a Chinese man, all their prepared commentary was wasted. The hosts wanted to lower their heads to check the information about the Chinese athlete, but this was a hundred-meter sprint, and they didn't have time to look up the information.

...

In contrast, the commentary on domestic TV stations was completely unaffected because they only focused on Zhang Guan's competition.

"The race begins, Zhang Guan's start is good, he's accelerating, come on, start accelerating, the competition is fierce, Zhang Guan surges to the front, catches up with Crawford! Excellent, hold on to the current position! Zhang Guan's speed is fast, hold on, you must hold on, holding on to the top three is a victory! Overtaking! Overtaking Crawford!"

The next moment, the commentator's voice suddenly rose several degrees, instantly changing from a mid-range to a high pitch.

"In the lead! Zhang Guan overtakes Crawford! Zhang Guan is in the lead! Come on! Come on! Come on! Crawford wants to catch up! He's still behind Zhang Guan! They're about to finish! Still in the lead! Faster! Faster! Come on! Finish line! Zhang Guan crosses the line! Great! Well done! First place! First in the group! Qualified! Into the semifinals! We've won! We've made it to the semifinals!"

The commentator's voice had turned into a roar, sounding somewhat incoherent, or maybe he didn't know what to say at this moment. It wasn't until a moment later that he realized that the voice in his earpiece was making his ears ache, and this voice was actually coming from himself. At this moment, the commentator realized that his performance just now was a bit out of line.

This was a live broadcast of a program, and shouting like he just did, regardless of his image, was already a violation of broadcasting discipline. So the commentator took a deep breath, trying to calm down his excitement, but the next moment, the camera focused on Zhang Guan, and the athletes' results appeared on the broadcast screen.

The commentator couldn't contain his excitement again, shouting, "9.87 seconds! 9.87 seconds! Zhang Guan ran 9.87 seconds! Running into 9.9! An Asian, a Chinese, the first to run into 9.9!"

Meanwhile, in the control room not far away, there was already applause everywhere. Mr. Xu, who was in charge of the control room, completely ignored the commentator's improper behavior. He tightly clenched his fists, so excited that he was trembling. The fatigue and drowsiness from over ten hours of work had completely disappeared at this moment, leaving only excitement and shock in his heart.

"What an exciting race!" Mr. Xu took a deep breath. Although it was only a short ten seconds, he felt that this level of excitement was much stronger than the women's badminton doubles final earlier. A one-hour women's badminton doubles final, with two Chinese teams playing a wonderful match, was indeed thrilling, but watching them play against each other, it always felt like something was missing. Although the gold medal was in hand, the psychological satisfaction it brought to the audience was far less than defeating foreigners, especially defeating Americans, in the sprint, the event Americans were strongest in!

"Let's start editing right away, and then we'll play back the race in detail later!" Mr. Xu said.

At this moment, Mr. Xu's phone suddenly rang.

"It's so late, who's calling? My wife knows I'll be broadcasting late tonight." Mr. Xu glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was the deputy station manager in charge of his channel.

Mr. Xu hastily answered the phone, "Hello, station manager, what's up, I'm Xiao Xu."

"Xiao Xu, I watched the 100-meter sprint on Channel One. The live broadcast of this race was great! Beating the Americans is so inspiring! Tomorrow's news should highlight this, especially emphasizing that the sprint is the Americans' best event, and we beat them in this event!" the deputy station manager said.

"Station manager, rest assured, I'll personally follow up on this report." Mr. Xu hung up the phone. Every year, the extensive coverage and reporting of the Olympic Games is mainly aimed at boosting national confidence and strengthening national cohesion. In terms of publicity tone, Mr. Xu is already a master, and at this moment, a rough outline of the entire report has already appeared in his mind.