The Olympian Nagisa Akito

Just as the jogger thought this, he heard another set of footsteps from his side.

As he turned to his right, he saw the same student earlier catching up to him and then ran directly beside him.

The handsome looking boy smiled and asked him, "Hey pops, how fast can you run?"

The audacity of the younger generation these days!

The jogger did not speak but steadily increased his speed.

He was the type of man who believed that if he had something to say, he would prove it with his actions. This was how he got to compete in a 100 m sprint in the Summer Olympics with Usain Bolt.

4 m/s

5 m/s

The jogger was no longer jogging, but running. He kept eye contact with Hikaru and his lips broke into a smirk.

He had heard about young kids doing funny pranks to get famous on social media like YouTube or TikTok. He didn't see any cameras, but they could always be hidden. If not that, some delinquents loved to bully others.

The old man thought this because Hikaru could have found a younger opponent if he was confident about his speed, but opted to race against a senior.

What else but to remind the old man that he was frail and balding?

The young boy was so good-looking it seemed like he was beating it into the old man.

'Oh boy, did you pick the wrong 'pops' to mess with. I'll teach you how to respect your seniors!'

6 m/s

7 m/s

The old man had surpassed the average speed of athlete sprinters but became surprised that Hikaru was keeping up, and he didn't seem to get tired!

The middle-aged man would have been impressed if Hikaru didn't have an arrogant smile on his face as if this was nothing.

Little did the boy know he was competing with an Olympic sprinter from over a decade ago!

8 m/s

9 m/s

The man looked to his right and saw that Hikaru was still keeping pace!

No, maybe Hikaru was faster but was toying with him!

The fact was that Hikaru wasn't running at his top speed but was matching the old man which gave the message to him 'Any speed you can run, I can run faster.' This really hurt his pride.

'Ahh, I see. Kids these days are young and talented and also really ruthless… But! I won't be beaten here!'

Nagisa Akito.

The first man from Japan who broke the 10-second barrier — an insurmountable barrier for many except for the world's best including Usain Bolt — wasn't him.

That was already claimed by another Japanese, a decade before he competed in his first Olympics with Usain Bolt.

When Nagisa competed, he broke the ten-second barrier, but the wind gauge had measured wind assistance of 2.1 m/s.

When competing against the best in world-famous tournaments, they measure results to two decimal places so that it was almost impossible for two competitors to have the same score.

As such, the measurements were very sensitive.

Therefore, wind help can significantly affect the results of certain sports like triple jumps, long jumps, hurdles and sprints, etc.

Here, a tailwind can increase the athlete's speed. If the performance is to set a record, there is a limit to how much supporting wind the athlete can compete under.

The result will not be reported as a record at any stage if a tailwind exceeds 2 metres per second.

The results in that game, however, are still true since all competitors in a race will get equal weather but because of this, Nagisa's breaking the ten-second barrier cannot be recorded.

Although he came in 4th place with a time of 9.93 seconds which was exceptional, he cared more about the world record.

He wanted to show the world that the Japanese could break that barrier again and that he was the second guy to do it. He wanted to lead the way with a torch.

'If only the tailwind was 2.0 m/s I would have shown them!'

He felt it was unfair. They made rules for a reason, but in this case, he felt it was unreasonable to not standardise the result because he realised he could still break the ten-second barrier without the extra 0.1 m/s wind assistance.

After it crushed his dreams, he fell into depression and became dead inside.

If he were to lose again to this random kid, he would commit suicide right here.

"I AM NAGISA AKITO!" He said.

Hikaru widened his eyes a bit at this.

"You are a hundred years too early to beat me! Never in my life will I let you win!"

"Hmph, then I will proceed to beat you Nagisa-san."

Hikaru had acknowledged his challenge and sped up, going in front of Nagisa.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Nagisa poured his remaining stamina into his legs.

9.2 m/s

9.4 m/s

Yet, Hikaru moved further away from him despite his acceleration.

9.6 m/s

9.8 m/s

Nagisa shouted at the judges.

The audience roared back at him.

His daughter cried tears in the crowd.

He kicked the locker and hunched over a bench.

Flashbacks of that day came at him, his running faltered.

He slowed down to a stop and bent over breathing his lungs out.

He took a swing at his thigh with his fist in frustration.

'Dammit! It happened again!"

Hikaru walked back to him and waited for Nagisa to catch his breath.

After a while when no one said anything, Hikaru turned around to walk away.

"Wait! Please, young man."

Hikaru listened to the man's request.

"Come to my place. We'll race there. I'm not done yet."

Hikaru wasn't in a hurry to get to the gym, and he could tell that this man was as good as the elite athletes that could take part in the Olympics.

He would find no one better in this town but perhaps his offspring could serve as a better benchmark.

Hikaru agreed and followed this man to his house that wasn't far away.