Orc Undead Sports Warrior

Despite having an unhealed Achilles tendon injury, Liu Xiang single-handedly made it to the semifinals through sheer skill. This victory was a source of great joy for every Chinese person in the stadium. In the high-intensity competition of the Olympics, to reach the semifinals while dragging half of his right leg speaks volumes about Liu Xiang's strength.

In everyone's eyes, as long as Liu Feiren is still on the field, that is a blessing.

After the competition, Liu Fei quickly greeted the others and rushed to the lounge for a massage. His Achilles tendon was still warm from exercising; waiting until his body cooled down completely before receiving treatment would significantly reduce its effectiveness.

So after the semi-finals ended, Liu Feiren walked straight out of the arena in the middle of his team.

Everyone around was taken aback. Liu Feiren usually seemed to be a loner, and unless you spent a lot of time with him, it would be hard to tell that he had a team of nearly 20 people. When Liu Feiren was shining on the field, none of them had ever appeared in public. But these past two days, when Liu Feiren was troubled by injuries, they simply disregarded everything and appeared by his side.

"A team of so many people, all serving one athlete to win the championship. No matter that Liu Yangyu was preparing to withdraw from the competition but came back, the responsibility on his shoulders simply did not allow him to back down."

Looking at the crowd heading towards the athletes' passage in the distance, Wang Qiao couldn't help but sigh.

Judging from the first two events, although Lu Wei played the role of the vanguard of the track and field team, in terms of the team's morale, he is still hard to compare with Liu Xiang.

At least so far, the uplifting effect Liu Xiang has brought to the team is irreplaceable. Many people know that because of his Achilles tendon injury, even if Liu Xiang makes it to the finals, he probably won't be able to win the gold medal like he did four years ago.

Objectively speaking, he probably doesn't even have the ability to stand on the podium. Nevertheless, the reactions of everyone during the competition still show how important he is to them.

The audience's attention followed Liu Feiren's team until everyone left the stadium, at which point most of the audience turned their attention away.

After this little incident, the entire audience suddenly lost interest in the last group of the 110-meter hurdles race. It was as if hurdling with Liu Feiren was the only real hurdling, and after he left, the sport became dull and uninteresting.

Next up was the 200-meter semi-final. After his stunning performance in the 100 meters, Bolt had become the focus of the entire stadium. However, while some applauded him, quite a few boos could also be heard as he entered the arena.

Perhaps if the Olympics were held in another country, Bolt might be the darling of the audience today, but this is Beijing. The root of the problem is that Bolt defeated our own athlete in the final, and by a mere fraction of a second, which makes it hard for some viewers to accept.

Bolt's main event is the 200 meters. Based on his previous performance in the 100 meters, the audience believes that his advantage in this event should be even greater than in the 100 meters.

The fact that no runner in the first group finished under 20 seconds dampened the crowd's spirits slightly. It wasn't until Bolt entered the stadium that the crowd's enthusiasm truly returned.

While everyone was busy applauding or booing, Bolt noticed someone booing him and first made an exaggerated expression of surprise, as if to say, "Are you kidding me? Is this how you treat a world champion?"

Then he shrugged, feigning indifference. At that moment, a close-up shot of him appeared on the big screen, and the entire audience laughed and applauded upon seeing his expression.

The audience who had been booing saw that the young man looked innocent and had no guile whatsoever, and it seemed as if they had made peace with him, so they stopped making any more discordant noises.

Then the men's 200-meter semi-final, in which he participated, began. Bolt had a clear advantage from the start. Every step he took looked effortless, with excellent displacement, leaving the other team members far behind.

Soon, he pulled ahead of the team behind him. No matter how hard the other team members seemed to work, there was a significant difference in their running performance.

"This kid is really something else. I'm afraid our Lu Wei will have a hard time beating him in a short time!"

Jiang Jianjun spoke to Wang Qiao, who nodded in agreement. At this time, Lu Wei had already gone to the check-in table's lounge to make final preparations for the semi-finals, so the two of them spoke without any restraint.

With about 20 meters to go, Bolt began to slow down and started hopping forward with big strides.

In sprint races, even when athletes of similar skill levels have a large lead, it's rare for the gap to exceed 5 meters. With such a distance from the finish line, Bolt ran as if no one else was around.

"This is probably a serious overreaction!"

Looking at Bolt, Zou Zhen couldn't help but mutter to himself.

With less than 10 meters from the finish line, Bolt's teammates caught up. At this point, the audience started screaming. Many spectators had come to the race just for the spectacle.

Their demands on the athletes on the field are actually not complicated: either give me a high-level match, or give me a good show, or get out of here.

Many people come to the race expecting a good show, and as the other competitors close in on Bolt, everyone gets excited. If this playful young black man really pulls off a stunt during the race, that would be far more interesting than his narrow victory.

As a result, everyone watched as the people behind them were about to catch up with Bolt, but they just couldn't. In the end, he still won first place in his group.

"This kid is really something! My heart was in my throat. Being his coach must be tough!"

As Wang Qiao spoke, his spirits rose along with the group's matches.

After the race, Bolt playfully winked at the audience, and when he made sure the camera was on him, he even did a bow-drawing and arrow-shooting motion.

After he had played with all the treasures, he went up to the stands.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the next event is the men's 400m semifinals. There are three groups in the semifinals. The top two from each group will advance to the final, and the two best performers from the remaining group will also qualify for the final. Our athlete Lu Wei has been placed in the third group, along with American LaShawn Merritt, Swede Weissman, British Ronnie, and Trinidad and Tobago's Lenny Kaul."

After hearing Yang Li's explanation, Mr. Lu smiled.

"This is the first time I've ever watched a sports competition where the introductions start from the last group. Believe it or not, if our son were in the second group, the commentator would have to start from the middle and go out to both sides. It's interesting, haha!"

"This shows that our Lu Wei is outstanding, so much so that the commentators don't even care about the flow of the commentary."

Lu's mother didn't seem as relaxed as Lu's father; she was still worried about her son. After hearing the semi-final advancement rules from the commentator, she was still a little concerned for Lu Wei, as there was simply no room for adjustment in this kind of competition.

"Sorry, because Lu Wei is in the third group, I went off-topic. Let's take a look at the players from the first group first."

Yang Li realized that it was time to introduce the team members when he saw the camera start to focus on the first group of members.

As the camera moved, Yang Li began to introduce the members of the first group.

"Looking at the group assignments, Lu Wei's group is a true group of death, with four or five athletes having a best time of around 44.5 seconds. The strongest athletes in the first group are Wariner and Chris Brown, and it shouldn't be too difficult for them to secure direct qualification. This kind of competition will be quite tough for the other athletes in the group!"

As Yang Li explained, Mr. Lu nodded repeatedly: "To advance, we probably have to fight for one of the two reserve spots. It's tough!"

Although the players who make it to the semifinals are all world-class, there are always stronger players out there. Sometimes, the group stage draw can also influence the outcome of each group's group.

Sure enough, when the race reached the second corner, Wariner and Chris Brown's advantage was very obvious to the naked eye, and they held the top two positions firmly until the end of the race.

Wariner easily ran a time of 44.15 seconds, leaving Chris Brown helpless and unable to perform at all. His time was 44.45 seconds, which was his personal best, but it was still difficult for him to catch up with Wariner.

When the second group of players came out, the commentator's voice suddenly rang out.

"Oh dear, the second group's members are a bit weaker than the first group. Judging from the best results, the two fastest individual results in this group are French player Dejong and American David Neville, who were defeated by Lu Wei in the semi-finals!"

After Yang Li finished speaking, the elderly couple stared at the players on the TV: "These two are indeed members of Lu Wei's group in the semi-finals. How much of an advantage are they getting!"

"Exactly, it would be great if Lu Wei were in this group!"

The group stage was uneventful, with DeJon and David Neville finishing in the top two, their results not showing a significant improvement over the previous rounds.

DeJoan's time was 44.79 seconds, and David Neville's time was 44.91 seconds.

"What a twist of fate! Haha! This result would be difficult to even get into the top 3 in the previous groups, and in Lu Wei's group, it's probably not even a top 5. These two should go back and buy lottery tickets."

Zou Zhen said with a smile that although there was a big difference in strength between the first two groups, he just sighed and didn't have a big reaction. How they performed was none of his business.

Next, the third group of players came out, and from the moment Lu Wei appeared on the field, the cheers from the audience never stopped.

In the 100-meter race, he broke the world record alongside Bolt and nearly dethroned the fastest man on Earth from his throne as the world's number one sprinter.

It is precisely because of his powerful background that Bolt stands out as a god-like figure among others.

Then came the introduction of the athletes on the field: "Standing in lane 2 is Congolese (DRC) athlete Gary Kikaya... Lane 5 is our athlete Lu Wei, who just won a very good silver medal in the 100-meter race. We hope he can also achieve good results in this event, and it would be best if we could change the color of our medal."

After Lu Wei was introduced, the audience erupted in sonar tactics. This environment should theoretically be a great motivator for the athletes.

However, later everyone noticed a pattern: once Lu Wei appeared, the audience's voices could almost drown out the announcer's voice when the subsequent team members entered the arena. Unless the starting gun was fired immediately, no one could stop them.

Merritt, who was on lane 7, looked quite helpless when he introduced himself. Even though he saw himself on the big screen, the audience was still calling out Lu Wei's name, which made him feel like he was being ignored.

He waved his hand helplessly: They really don't take me seriously!

Finally, the race began. As soon as the starting gun fired, Merritt sprinted off as if venting his anger. He maintained a high stride frequency throughout the first half, showing how annoyed he was by being ignored by the audience.

Lu Wei hasn't participated in many international 400m competitions since last year's World Championships. Merritt thinks he should be able to dominate on the track just like last year, since beating him shouldn't be a problem.

He's stronger than him, and his power in the later stages and the early stages is not much different, so Merritt needs to exert more force in the first 200 meters than usual.

This immediately left the other team members behind.

At this moment, Lu Wei was running on the field at a leisurely pace, a scene that surprised everyone. Everyone had thought that Lu Wei would seize the initiative after the starting gun fired.

Unexpectedly, after Lu Wei started running, he took big strides in the middle of the group, and it seemed that there were at least 5 people who were just as good as him.

"What are you two up to? You were so reckless in the last shot, but now you're acting so laid-back in the semifinals. What's going on between you two?"

Jiang Jianjun was a little confused at this point. It was clear that Merritt's burst of energy at the start was aimed at Lu Wei's running style in the preliminaries.

However, no one expected that Lu Wei would still be "keeping a low profile" when the first straight was about to end.

“Merritt was in lane 7. I told him to just follow his opponent for the first half of the race and then wait for the last opportunity to make the decisive move.”

Wang Qiao spoke without even looking at Jiang Jianjun, appearing completely nonchalant.

Everyone turned to look at Wang Qiao in disbelief, as if to say, "Your act is absolutely brilliant."

Wang Qiao was overjoyed at this moment, never expecting that this kid would actually follow his plan to compete.

Unexpectedly, after the second bend, the situation changed dramatically. Lu Wei suddenly accelerated, quickly leaving behind his teammates who were close to him in the rankings. Although the 400-meter race has a track extension due to different lanes, simply put, the outer lanes are about 7 meters ahead of the adjacent inner lanes along the arc of the track.

The team members were all experienced in this event, and as soon as Lu Wei started to accelerate, they realized they were being left behind.

At this point, no one wanted to be stopped at the finals, so everyone started to accelerate wildly, and the sprint battle began ahead of schedule.

Because he was in lane 7, Merritt couldn't see Lu Wei's position at all. When he entered the last straight, he was still smug. Before he could get there, Lu Wei had caught up with him in less than 20 meters. He could see Lu Wei's body slowly moving forward in his line of sight out of the corner of his eye.

Merritt was not to be outdone, and the two battled it out on the straight before the finish line, which gave the audience another thrill. No one expected the semi-final to be so exciting.

When the two were less than 50 meters from the finish line, Merritt felt that Lu Wei had sped up a bit, while he felt his thighs were sore and his lungs were burning.

"I'm not going to fight this lunatic anymore. We'll save our duel for the finals. I'm done playing. Go ahead and be crazy!"

With that in mind, Merritt stopped fighting Lu Wei to the death. In the last 50 meters, Lu Wei pulled away from him by about 3 meters.

"Well done, our son is great!"

Mrs. Lu stood up happily from the sofa, clenching her fist tightly. No matter what, she had to win first.