12 Youthful Pride

"Coach Xiao, may I ask what you are looking for? Maybe I can be of some assistance." Seeing Xiao Yan re-starting his inspection, Tang Yan spoke up.

Xiao Yan immediately began to blush, embarrassment present on his face.

After the 50m finals were over, he had learned from one of his people that Tang Yan had only been practicing archery for half a year. Hearing this, the first thought that popped into his mind was that Tang Yan must have cheated

After further investigating, he had found out that the recurve bow Tang Yan had used for the competition was his own personal bow, not one obtained at the competition.

Connecting these two things, he had confidently brought over Li Lao and the rest to check, he hadn't expected to find nothing.

Tang Yan's sentence was equal to a slap across his face.

Seeing this, Shao Ping couldn't help but feel proud. For the first time, he felt superior to Xiao Yan, and he couldn't care less that it wasn't through his own making.

Li Lao who was watching the situation looked like he was finally preparing to speak.

"Li Lao, some techniques are indistinguishable from the naked eye. Technology has improved a great length over these past few..." said Xiao Yan .

"Old Xiao, are you still not giving up?" interrupted Shao Ping, shooting him a condescending look.

"He should change bows and re-shoot in front of all of us." said Xiao Yan, simply ignoring Shao Ping.

"Re-shoot, why should he, just because you say so?! Li Lao has already said there is no problem with his bow or do you think you know better than Li Lao?

"At that time, when we were setting the rules, wasn't it you who pushed to let the archers bring their own bows and arrows? And now you are accusing people of cheating. Is it because your people are cheating?" rebutted Shao Ping, showing no weakness."

Tang Yan silently praised his coach in his mind.

"Shao Ping, how dare you?! Don't get cocky just because you won one event. Wait till next year, we will..."

"Okay, that's enough!" said Li Lao, seeing the two about to quarrel.

Li Lao was an extremely prestigious person in the provincial archery team. Although the two men were angry, they soon became quiet.

"Tang Yan, can you change to a new bow, and shoot another round for us?" asked Li Lao to Tang Yan.

"No problem." Tang Yan didn't think much of it, at his level, changing bows meant nothing to him. He could still comfortably shoot 10 pointers.

With the consent of Tang Yan, they walked straight towards the shooting gallery.

They walked to the shooting gallery with great enthusiasm, but soon found a problem.

Because the 70-meter finals were about to start soon, the distance in the shooting gallery had been adjusted. At this point, there wasn't much time till the start of the finals and it would take too long to move thing back and forth.

Seeing this, a coach sighed and said, "I guess we will have to wait until tomorrow."

"No!" said Shao Ping and Xiao Yan in unison.

Shao Ping's objection was due to the fact that he was worried about Tang Yan's mental state from all this pressure. Whilst Xiao Yan's objection was completely different, he was worried if he waited till tomorrow, Tang Yan and the rest would change their minds.

Seeing the coaches on both sides not agreeing, the situation suddenly fell into a stalemate.

Right at that moment, Tang Yan suddenly said: "In fact, it doesn't matter. I can shoot 70 meters."

"What?" listening to his words, the other coaches showed incredible looks on their faces.

"Tang Yan, don't talk nonsense!" Shao Ping immediately reprimanded.

The difference between 70 meters and 50 meters wasn't just 20 meters. For archers, it was a whole new ballpark, those extra 20 meters separated the amateurs from the experts in the archery world.

"Quickly, go get a bow," said Xiao Yan immediately to a staff member. He had a massive grin across his face. He didn't expect Tang Yan to be so arrogant, from the information he had gathered, Tang Yan had never received training for 70 meters. This was simply pushing himself into the fire pit.

"Li Lao, this...." Shao Ping, seeing Tang Yan actually beginning to warm up, couldn't help but turn his head to Li Lao.

"If he has the confidence to do it then let him try," said Li Lao, interrupting Shao Ping. He didn't believe that someone with only half a year of training could shoot 70 meters either, but he wanted to test Tang Yan's abilities and see where he got such confidence from.

Soon, the staff member returned with a recurve bow and arrows in hand.

Naturally, the bow and arrows were from the Provincial Archery Association, so there was no chance of 'cheating'.

Tang Yan took the equipment and began to inspect it, just to make sure Xiao Yan wasn't playing any tricks. After seeing that everything seemed to be good, he didn't delay and got into position.

The audience at the scene was waiting for the 70-meter final to begin. At this time, suddenly seeing someone holding a recurve bow on the shooting gallery, confusion filled their eyes, especially when they realized that person was Tang Yan who had just won the 50m event.

What was going on over there?

Puzzled, the crowd broke out into discussion.

Looking at Tang Yan really preparing to shoot, Shao Ping couldn't help but sigh- youthful pride!

After Tang Yan nocked the arrow onto the bowstring, he then raised the bow up, and with his right hand, began to pull the arrow back.

The force behind the bow would determine the distance of the arrow. The draw weight of the bowstring determined how much force you could get from a bow.

Draw weight was the amount of force needed to pull a bow, and it is measured in pounds. Recurve bows had incrementally heavier draw weights the farther they were pulled.

At 30 meters, the right force for the recurve bow was 30 pounds, 50 meters was 40 pounds, and 70 meters required 50 pounds.

At this time, Tang Yan's pre-pull action attracted the attention of the coaches behind him.

For a high school student who hadn't been systematically trained before, it shouldn't be easy to pull a 50-pound bow.

But what they saw was Tang Yan pulling back the bowstring steadily and holding it in place, his arm was very stable, there was no jittering at all.

They all stared with awe.

After Tang Yan had drawn the bowstring back, he began to aim at the target at a distance of 70 meters.

The diameter of the target used in the 70m event was 122cm, for someone who was 70 meters away, this was like standing at the halfway line on a football field and trying to hit an apple inside the goal.

This was why 70 meters was so different from the 50m event.

Tang Yan took a deep breath, after unlocking 60% of Li Guang's abilities, he could clearly feel that 70 meters wasn't as big of a hurdle as before.

Not only had pulling the bowstring become easier, his vision seemed to have improved too. He could see the distant target more clearly.

He let out a sigh of relief, and gently raised his aim higher, then let the arrow loose.

Twang!

The arrow shot off the bowstring and flew through the sky.