Abnormal Endurance?

At 6:15 PM Moscow time on the 11th, the semifinals of the 400 meters began.

In the heats, Zhang Guan didn't encounter formidable opponents. His time of 46.05 seconds was the best reference. However, in the semifinals, he was placed in the same group with two American athletes: the rising star Lashawn Merritt and the highly anticipated Milton Campbell.

Zhang Guan vaguely remembered that at the future Capital Olympics, the American team swept the gold, silver, and bronze in the men's 400 meters. At that time, Jeremy Wariner, the king of the 400 meters, only got the silver medal, losing to Lashawn Merritt who took the gold. However, Merritt, who is now 20 years old, is still a young talent in the American team. Among the athletes competing in the indoor athletics competition this time, the top man for the 400 meters in the American team is Milton Campbell.

Campbell is also an experienced athlete. Although he hasn't won any major awards in his career, he has consistently been in good form. He's the type who can't beat strong opponents but won't lose to weaker ones.

For the spectators present, the men's 400 meters seemed to lack attention because fifteen minutes earlier, the women's pole vault competition had already begun. The Russian Pole Vault Queen, Isinbayeva, was about to make her appearance. Most Russians were focused on Isinbayeva, leaving few to watch the 400 meters semifinals.

The rhythmic applause in the venue made Zhang Guan feel a bit depressed. He remembered during the preliminaries at the Athens Olympics, the competition had been interrupted by Isinbayeva, and today, a similar situation was occurring.

Therefore, the men's 400 meters semifinal had to be delayed for a few minutes until Isinbayeva successfully cleared the bar. Only then did the starter signal for the athletes to take their marks.

Merritt and Campbell both glanced in Zhang Guan's direction. Zhang Guan's time of 46.05 seconds didn't put much pressure on them. The key was Zhang Guan's running style, which they couldn't quite understand how he could burst out with such speed during the final sprint.

However, the starter's gun soon sounded, and Merritt and Campbell could personally experience Zhang Guan's unique running style.

The first 100 meters of the race was uneventful, everyone running normally without any mistakes. Zhang Guan's sense of rhythm seemed very good, displaying a speed that was definitely at the level of world-class athletes.

Next, the athletes entered the second 100 meters. Zhang Guan didn't change his pace, while Campbell slightly increased his speed. Merritt's stride gradually began to widen.

Merritt had learned a trick from Jeremy Wariner: after entering the straight, try to maintain the same stride frequency and then increase the stride length. Although Merritt hadn't mastered this technique well, he was far from matching Wariner's level, but it still showcased his good talent.

Wariner's technique wasn't something everyone could learn. When normal people walk, they can feel that if they deliberately increase their stride, their posture changes and energy consumption increases. For 400-meter sprinters, deliberately increasing stride in a segment of the race also means changing rhythm and energy consumption, making it a difficult technique to master.

For example, Liu Feiren changed from eight steps to seven steps before the first hurdle. In fact, each step in front of the first hurdle was 13.72 meters in distance, and Liu Feiren spent several years mastering it. Wariner needed to change the entire straight running area, and the difficulty could be imagined.

At this moment, Merritt felt very good. He had just started learning this technique of taking larger steps on the straight, and in today's race, he felt he had already displayed his best level in practice.

However, after running for tens of meters, Merritt's stride adjustment still encountered problems. His rhythm seemed a bit chaotic, and he had to slow down slightly to adjust his pace, which affected his speed. His previous efforts were wasted, and he fell slightly behind Campbell and Zhang Guan.

In the third 100 meters, Campbell slightly reduced the amplitude of his stride and at the same time slightly increased his rhythm. He was about to start sprinting!

Campbell used Michael Johnson's running technique: he started accelerating around the 250-meter mark, then made slight adjustments, and immediately entered the final sprint.

At this moment, Campbell stood out. After all, he was a strong athlete, and even when everyone else accelerated simultaneously, Campbell still maintained an advantage.

As for Merritt, his acceleration was a bit delayed compared to Campbell's and seemed hurried.

As for Zhang Guan, his rhythm remained unchanged.

"I'm leading! Good, sprinting towards the finish line." Campbell glanced at Merritt's situation and felt that if he continued like this, Merritt shouldn't have a chance to beat him!

Meanwhile, Merritt shifted his focus to Zhang Guan.

"I'm ahead of Zhang Guan now. Can I qualify as the second in the group? Wait, Zhang Guan is using the same running style as in the heats!"

Next moment, Campbell entered the final 100 meters first. At this point, he had already consumed a lot of energy, but he forcefully accelerated again for the final sprint.

Merritt followed closely behind. At this moment, Merritt showed the potential of a future sprint star. His energy reserves were better than Campbell's, and his sprint speed was fast. He slowly began to approach Campbell.

"Come on, I'm about to surpass Campbell!" Merritt thought to himself. Just then, a red figure suddenly appeared next to him, then swiftly passed by, heading straight for Campbell ahead!

"It's Zhang Guan!" Merritt widened his eyes. Zhang Guan once again demonstrated a speed that didn't belong to the 400 meters sprint, and this time, his sprint was even faster than in the heats!

Yesterday, Merritt had watched Zhang Guan's 400-meter race live, but the feeling of watching and actually competing against Zhang Guan was completely different. Watching, Merritt had only found Zhang Guan's sprint incredible, but in actual competition, when Zhang Guan overtook him with such speed, Merritt suddenly felt a hint of despair.

"Zhang Guan is so fast, how can I catch up?" In the final sprint, Zhang Guan once again showed his ability to surpass opponents. He passed Merritt, passed Campbell, passed everyone in front of him, and then crossed the finish line, qualifying first in the group with a time of 45.63 seconds for the finals.

...

The hotel where the athletes stayed was behind a school with an outdoor track field.

Campbell, in his sports attire, jogged into the school, heading towards the track field. The school's security guards just glanced at him and didn't stop him.

"How did Zhang Guan do it? Can it be that maintaining the same rhythm for the first 300 meters can really conserve more energy, but it's impossible to have such a fast sprint at the end! There's something wrong somewhere, I have to try it myself." Campbell ran onto the track and saw a familiar figure sprinting on it. It was Lashawn Merritt.

Merritt had already entered the second bend. His rhythm was steady, but it looked a bit strange. Campbell could clearly feel that Merritt's speed was slower than usual.

Next, Merritt didn't accelerate at the original point. He didn't even accelerate in the bend. Instead, he ran into the final straight and suddenly began to accelerate towards the finish line.

Merritt's sprint speed was fast, much faster than his usual final sprint. However, as the finish line approached, Merritt's speed slowed down. Campbell could see that Merritt was struggling, or rather, at the last moment, Merritt had exhausted all his energy.

Merritt crossed the finish line and then looked at the stopwatch in his hand, shaking his head in disappointment.

"No, I can't do it. Following Zhang Guan's running style, I'm almost at 50 seconds! And running like this, I can't achieve the speed of sprinting like Zhang Guan's, nor can I sustain it to the finish line! How does Zhang Guan do it?"

"Lashawn!" Campbell's voice came from nearby. "Are you experimenting with Zhang Guan's running style?"

"Yes," Merritt nodded, then continued, "but I can't do it. I've tried it twice. I deliberately slowed down my speed in the beginning to conserve more energy, but in the end, I still couldn't match Zhang Guan's sprint speed, and there's a significant problem with energy distribution. I can't maintain that sprint speed to the finish line."

"You time me; let me try it." Campbell said, standing on the starting line.

A minute later, Campbell also reached the finish line. He didn't bother to ask his own time because he knew he was close to 50 seconds.

"How can there be such a strange running style in the world!" Campbell kept complaining. "I ran the first 300 meters slowly. Even if I conserved more energy, I couldn't achieve such a fast sprint at the end! Is Zhang Guan some kind of alien?"

Merritt continued, "I think if I had twice as much energy as I do now, I should be able to achieve that kind of sprint in the final stage."

"Twice as much? Lashawn, are you kidding me! How can anyone in the world have such abnormal energy..." Campbell's words suddenly stopped. As an experienced professional athlete, he knew Merritt was right. If someone really had twice as much energy as usual, they could indeed do what Zhang Guan did.

"Could Zhang Guan have such abnormal energy?" Campbell took a cold breath. He suddenly realized that Zhang Guan, the world's number one sprinter, might not excel in extraordinary explosive power but rather in endurance beyond normal human limits.