I am waiting for you in Rio

Chapter 18

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the various preliminaries officially started, and the 400-meter freestyle was relatively low in the queue, and the contestants were waiting in the waiting room.Yang Yang and Park Shinjoong sat very close to each other. This time, both of them were assigned to the third group, and Japan's Hagino was assigned to the second group.Yang Yang still had to look in the direction of Pu Xinzhong from time to time, and Pu Xinzhong also quietly looked at Yang Yang's hand, and saw that although his hand was still wrapped in tape, it was not so swollen, so he felt relieved a little bit.

Soon, it was time for the competition. After Hagino Kosuke's second group, Yang Yang and Pu Xinzhong's group also entered the field. They were arranged in the fourth and fifth lanes respectively.During the game, Park Shin Joong's shoulder still hurt and he needed to rest, but the intensive schedule gave him no chance to breathe.Yang Yang is in the swimming lane next to Park Shin-joong. He breathes on the right side, so he can see Park Shin-joong every time he takes a breath on the return trip.

In the middle of the race, Yang Yang suddenly felt that one of Pu Xinzhong's strokes was awkward, as if he didn't dare to use force.How is this going?So Yang Yang began to pay attention to him, and later found that his movements were deformed a few times.In fact, the deformation of this kind of movement is extremely subtle, and most people would not notice it even if they watched it in slow motion, but Yang Yang discovered it. Firstly, because the two have been opponents for so many years, they are familiar with each other's skills to an unimaginable level. Second, Yang Yang has achieved such a high level of achievement in the swimming pool from a young age. His professional level is extremely high and his vision is very precise. Only then did he discover the abnormality.

After the game, Yang Yang looked over again, and Park Xinzhong smiled at him.Then Yang Yang went ashore with him and went to the interview with him.In the competition just now, Yang Yang won the first place in the group, and Park Shinjoong came second. Both of them entered the finals smoothly.Later, when he changed his clothes and was about to go back, Yang Yang suddenly said, "Park, do you have a shoulder injury?"

"I..." Park Xinzhong looked a little surprised, he thought for a while, and then said: "Well, it does hurt a little."

"That is how the matter?"

"The previous muscle strain, it happened again not long ago."

"Park, you..."

Yang Yang originally wanted to say that you should not fight so hard, but when all the hopes of a country are concentrated on one person, in this case you have to fight, even though you know that fighting may not necessarily lead to good results.They were all athletes of the same level, Yang Yang knew this very well, so he stopped what he wanted to say and didn't say it.

"It's okay, I know what's going on." Park Xinzhong said, he seemed to know what Yang Yang wanted to say, after a pause he asked again: "Where's your hand? How's it going?"

"Hand?" Yang Yang raised his injured hand to look at it, moved it a few more times, and said, "It's much better, and it won't be a problem to win Xiao Hagino tonight."

"Really?" Pu Xinzhong laughed when he heard him say that, thinking that this child is still so confident, "What about me?" He asked with a smile.

"You? What are you?" Yang Yang was puzzled. He didn't realize what the words meant, because in his heart, although Park Xinzhong was an old opponent for many years, he never regarded him as an enemy. .

Seeing his stupid look, Park Xinzhong thought of what happened in the past few years. At that time, Yang Yang was still young, and he was more stupid.Originally seeing you again this year, Park Shin Joong felt that he had matured a lot in terms of appearance and behavior, but this time he acted stupidly and went back to a few years ago.

Pu Xinzhong smiled lightly, stopped teasing him, and said instead: "I should go back, see you tonight."

"Oh, see you tonight." Yang Yang said blankly.

So Pu Xinzhong turned around and left, but he only took a few steps, then turned his head and said to Yang Yang who was still standing there: "Tonight's game is very important, you have to concentrate." This time he really left .

Yang Yang stood there looking at his back, and felt that Park Xinzhong seemed unwilling to communicate with him in private during this meeting this year, and always left after saying a few words.And his last sentence, Yang Yang thought to himself that he knew that I watched him during the 200-meter race.In fact, Park Xinzhong knew about this situation that night. He felt that Yang Yang lost strangely, so he watched the replay, and he discovered it.

A few hours passed quickly, and at 400 o'clock in the evening, the men's [-]-meter freestyle final was about to begin.This time Park Shinjoong is in the third lane, Yang Yang is in the fourth lane, and Kosuke Hagino is in the fifth lane.This year, Yang Yang has no ranking in this event because he did not participate in international competitions before; Hagino Kosuke ranked fourth; Park Shinjoong ranked first, but now, his condition is very poor.

At the beginning of the game, Park Shin Joong had the shortest reaction time at 0.68 seconds, Hagino Kosuke 0.70 seconds, and Yang Yang 0.75 seconds.In the first 50 meters, Kosuke Hagino took the lead temporarily. After turning around, Yang Yang and Pu Xinzhong followed up. After 100 meters, the three gradually formed a situation of going hand in hand, leaving the other players far behind.At 250 meters, Yang Yang started to take the lead, Kosuke Hagino followed him, and Pu Xinzhong gradually fell behind.

In fact, Park Shin Joong felt that his body was so heavy that he could barely float when he was less than 200 meters away, and his muscles were also stiff and weak. At this time, he knew that he was going to lose.In the last 50 meters, Yang Yang started to sprint. Although Kosuke Hagino's sprint ability is also very strong, he is not as good as Yang Yang after all. In the end, Yang Yang won the championship without any suspense, with a time of 3:43, ranking second in the world this year; Hagino Gong Jie won the runner-up with a time of 23:3; Park Shin-jung only won No.44 with a time of 48:3, which was more than 3 seconds slower than Yang Yang.

In the Pan-Pacific Championships in late August, Park Shin-jung swam a good time of 3:43, ranking first this year.However, now, various reasons have caused his competitive level to decline, and his performance has dropped by more than 15 seconds a month, which makes him feel ashamed and sad.But even so, he was still smiling. At the finish line, he touched Yang Yang's chin and said to him: "goodboy!", and Yang Yang raised his hand to signal to the audience, just like four years ago in Guangzhou In the Asian Games, it was exactly the same when Park Shin-jung raised his hand.

Yang Yang finally won the gold medal in this competition. After the moment of joy, he immediately thought of Park Shin-jung, so he felt sad again.Then he followed Park Shin-jung all the way to the interview area, mixed mining area, shower room, locker room as he did after the 200-meter race...until the final press conference, he was with him all the time.

At the press conference, when Kosuke Hagino was answering reporters' questions, Park Shin-jung put his hands on his cheeks in a daze, and then slowly dozed off.Yang Yang glanced at him and felt even more sad in his heart.He knew that he was in poor condition for this competition, and in poor condition, he was particularly prone to fatigue. Zhang Lin was like this during the Guangzhou Asian Games. Yang Yang also saw him dozing off from exhaustion when he was waiting in the lounge to receive the award.This time Yang Yang was still sitting in the middle of the press conference. He quietly moved towards Park Xinzhong, then reached out and gently held his other hand under the table.

Pu Xinzhong's hands trembled, and he opened his eyes, but he didn't move.But Yang Yang could feel his tension, because his fingers were stiff, so Yang Yang held his fingers and stroked them lightly, and Pu Xinzhong relaxed. At this time, Yang Yang opened his hand and held Pu Xinzhong Zhong's palm and fingers were wrapped tightly, as if only in this way, the sadness in his heart could be relieved.And Park Xinzhong has not moved, maybe in his heart, he is also very eager to have such comfort.

But soon, the reporters' questions to Kosuke Hagino ended, and Yang Yang began to answer the questions. Now the focus of the audience shifted to him, and he had no choice but to let go of Park Xinzhong's hand.When Yang Yang answered the reporter's question, he first thanked his sponsors for their unwavering commitment to him.This is indeed the case. In the past two years, he has been raging. Although there are media distortions and exaggerations, he himself is indeed wrong. This is undeniable.However, his sponsor did not give up on him because of this, but has been supporting him all the time, worthy of the words "never leave and never give up".Later, Park Shin Joong said that if he could have such a sponsor, he would do anything for the company, but he didn't. Except for the sponsorship for this year's winter training, the rest of the training was at his own expense.

After the press conference, it was already very late, Yang Yang said goodbye to Park Xinzhong, and then took his special car back to the Asian Games Village.He thought Park Shinjoong would leave soon, but he didn't know that he waited for another hour.Park Shin-jung has always taken the athletes' shuttle bus to and from the residence and the competition venue, but this time due to a staff error, the shuttle bus was late for more than an hour, and Park Shin-jung waited outside the swimming pool for more than an hour.This was the last bus, and besides his personal assistant, there were several other athletes who had returned late with him.

After returning home, Park Shinjoong fell asleep immediately, he was very tired, and there was a game tomorrow, which made him not even have the energy to feel lost.

The next day, September 9, there will be a 24 x 4m freestyle relay, in which both Yang Yang and Park Shin Joong will participate.

Yang Yang did not participate in the preliminaries in the morning. In order to preserve his strength, the team always only let him participate in the finals.But Park Shin-jung couldn’t do it. If he didn’t participate in the preliminaries, he might not even be able to make it to the final due to the strength of the Korean team, so he had to participate in the preliminaries of every relay event.In the evening finals, Yang Yang was placed in the third club, Ning Zetao was placed in the fourth club, and the South Korean team was still Park Shinjoong's last club.

The Japanese team's first baton was Shinri Shioura, who had an advantage at the beginning of the game. When the second baton was handed over, the Japanese team was still ahead of the No.2 Chinese team by 0.32 seconds.At this time, Yang Yang entered the water, and he overtook in the last 50 meters, leading the Japanese team by 0.05 seconds when he handed over the baton.Then Ning Zetao, the last stick of the Chinese team, entered the water. He cut through the waves like a broken bamboo, and further widened the distance between the Chinese team and the Japanese team. Finally, amidst the cheers of the audience, the Chinese team won the championship with a time of 3:13 and broke the record. The Asian record is 47 seconds faster than the runner-up Japanese team.The South Korean team won No.0.9, nearly 3 seconds behind the Chinese team.