The men's 400-meter dash final was held on the last day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships, and the men's 4x400-meter final was held on the same day. The two events were only an hour and a half apart.
For the American team, there are two options for this day's competition. One is to go all out to win the gold medal in the 400-meter dash, and the other option is to strategically give up the 400-meter dash and sprint 4x400 meters. sprint gold medal.
In the 400-meter race, apart from Zhang Guan, the strongest athlete entering the 400-meter final should be the defending champion Ireni Francisco.
Francisco is a Grenadian athlete who once entered the finals of the 400-meter event in the Athens Olympics and achieved a good result of fourth place. At that time, his time in the Athens Olympics finals was 44.66 seconds, which can be regarded as the best in the world. The top athletes.
Of course, Francisco aims to defend his title. He originally thought that his biggest opponent was Campbell, but he didn't expect to win halfway. Although the score of 45.63 seconds in the semi-finals is not very high, it can already be achieved in this field. Won a medal in a level competition.
What worries Francisco even more is Zhang Guan's special running style. Francisco can feel that Zhang Guan did not try his best in the semi-finals, which means there is still a lot of room for improvement. Thinking of Zhang Guan's performance last year Francesco still felt guilty after running a time of 45.50 seconds abroad.
Francisco's 400-meter running method is quite special. He is an athlete who mainly runs in the early stage. He starts running fast from the start. After that, he still runs fast in the second 100 meters, and in the third He was also very fast in the 100 meters, and then led into the last 100 meters. However, in the last 100 meters, due to the heavy physical exertion in the early stage, his speed would slow down. His final 100 meters took more than 12 seconds. Not many top athletes use this running style.
In the final of the Athens Olympics, Francisco was the first athlete to enter the last 100 meters. When entering the last 100 meters, Francisco was 0.2 seconds faster than Varina of the United States, but he only finished fourth. , because Fein Rancico spent 0.86 seconds longer than Varina in the last 100 meters, and it was 0.66 seconds slower every time.
From a pertinence point of view, Francisco's running method is very restrained for those athletes with poor physical strength, because in the last 100 meters, no one can run fast, so the advantage obtained by Francisco in the front is enough for him to win the championship. ; But if you meet an athlete with very good physical strength and sprint in the last 100 meters, Francisco will be overtaken.
Zhang Guan is obviously the best athlete in the world at sprinting in the last 100 meters.
…
At 9:30 pm Moscow time, the finals of the men's 400-meter dash officially began.
A gunshot sounded, and the athletes started smoothly. After all, it was a 400-meter sprint race, and almost no athletes would rush to start the race. But the game had just begun, and many coaches had some clues.
"Americans have given up on the 400-meter dash!" Director Yu sighed.
On the field, the American players participating in the finals did not try their best, but seemed to be running a practice match, obviously giving up the gold medal. For the American team, they will participate in the 4x400m final in an hour and a half, and they are unwilling to expend their energy on the 400m sprint.
Zhang Guan still ran at his own pace tepidly, while Francisco followed his usual running method and ran very fast in the early stage.
Francisco entered the straight first, and in this section, he was about 0.3 seconds faster than Zhang Guan.
"Now that we've entered the straight, I have to try my best to use this distance to gain an advantage." Francisco's speed became even faster.
After all, the straight road is easier to run than the curve. Even if Zhang Guan did not change his rhythm, his speed was still slightly faster than that of the curve, but it was still a little slower than Francisco who was accelerating. It's just that Francisco's explosive power is relatively average among 400-meter runners, which also affects his performance in the straight.
This section is the fastest section for 400-meter athletes. Generally speaking, the participating athletes can run 11 seconds. However, due to the starting position, the athletes seem to be in front and back, which greatly affects the enjoyment of the game.
At the end of the 200 meters, Francisco slowed down a little and began to adjust his rhythm. Although Francisco's explosive power is average, his cornering skills are still very good, and he is very good at accelerating in corners, especially the third 100 meters. His speed is definitely among the top athletes in the world.
Under normal circumstances, Francisco's third 100-meter time can be maintained at about 11 seconds. His sprint point is probably after 230 meters. This is also his last chance to widen the gap with his opponents.
"Francisco is running so fast! According to this calculation, it took him more than one and a half seconds to complete the first 300 meters! But fortunately, with his running style, he will definitely not have the energy to sprint in the last 100 meters." Director Yu only frowned slightly, but he was very relieved about Zhang Guan, because he knew that Zhang Guan could overtake Francisco by sprinting in the last 100 meters.
The professionals watching the game also understood that Francesco's early-stage running style would definitely be very slow in the last 100 meters, but Zhang Guan's final sprint was surprisingly fast, so the focus of the game became Francesco's sprint. How much advantage can Siko gain in the first 300 meters, and can the advantage he gains make up for the disadvantage in the last 100 meters of sprinting.
The so-called insiders look at the door, while laymen look at the excitement. Compared with professional sports coaches and athletes, the audience at the scene was obviously a group of laymen. They only saw Francisco running very fast in front. They only saw Francisco leading the other athletes by a large margin and rushing in first. The final straight runway, and therefore, they gave the cheers to Francisco.
"Francico! In the lead! Sprint...Francico!" The commentator on the scene shouted Franco's name loudly, and at this time, Zhang Guan also entered the last 100 meters. There is a gap of more than 1.5 seconds between the two.
In a 400-meter dash, a gap of less than 0.5 seconds can be easily made up in the last 100 meters; if the gap is less than 1 second, although it is a bit difficult, it is still possible to make a comeback at the last moment; but The gap of 1.5 seconds is almost impossible to overtake.
Although Francisco's speed in the last 100 meters was relatively slow, he could still run almost 12.5 seconds, which was much better than the last 100 meters of domestic athletes, which was over 14 seconds. If he wants to close the gap of 1.5 seconds, Zhang Guan needs to run within 11 seconds in the last 100 meters.
In a 400-meter sprint, it is extremely difficult to run under 11 seconds in the last 100 meters. In addition to requiring athletes to have extraordinary explosive power, it also requires athletes to have relatively good physical reserves in the previous 300 meters.
Zhang Guan is not lacking in these two points, he has both. After all, his physical exertion in the first 300 meters was only half, so it was almost certain that he would break 11 seconds in the final 100 meters.
…
After entering the straight track, Francisco already felt a little out of his power. He knew that he would slow down soon, and then he could only rely on inertia and strong will to persist to the finish line.
"With such a big gap, Zhang Guan shouldn't be able to surpass me!" This idea flashed in Francisco's mind, but at the same time, the commentator suddenly shouted Zhang Guan's name!
"Woo..." The audience in the venue first made a sound of surprise, followed by strong shouts and cheers.
"What's wrong?" Francisco felt the change in the atmosphere, but he did not look back. His eyes were fixed on the finish line because he felt that there was not much physical strength left, so he had to concentrate. , people are more likely to be resilient when they are focused, so that they can continue to maintain a certain speed and rush to the finish line.
At this moment, Zhang Guan caught up from behind and kept pace with Francisco. Moreover, this neck-to-neck situation did not last even for a second. Zhang Guan passed directly by Francisco.
"It's Zhang Guan! It seems to be faster than in the semi-finals! He really didn't try his best in the semi-finals!" Francisco was a little panicked. What he was most afraid of meeting was an athlete with strong final sprint ability.
Francisco's physical strength has bottomed out. At this time, he simply cannot maintain his original explosive power. His early running method is destined to lead to this result. For Francisco, every step forward now feels so difficult, every step forward is gritting his teeth and persisting, and every step forward is a struggle between willpower and physical strength.
In this physical state, if you are in a leading position, your willpower will be easier to gain the upper hand, but if you are surpassed, your willpower will definitely loosen, and the feeling of physical exhaustion will become more obvious.
Francisco still worked very hard, but his speed slowed down involuntarily. Especially the moment Zhang Guan surpassed him, his original confidence in winning suffered a heavy blow, which was directly reflected in his speed.
"Zhang Guan! Overtaken! He completed the overtake at the last moment! Rushing to the finish line! Crossing the line!" The commentator took a deep breath and then said: "Congratulations to Zhang Guan for winning the men's 400-meter dash championship!"
At this time, everyone turned their attention to the results column. Zhang Guan won his first indoor 400-meter dash championship with a time of 44.87 seconds, and once again ran within 45 seconds. Francisco 45.43 seconds, better than Zhang The champion was more than half a second slower, and the third place was Bahamian player Brown, with a final time of 45.78 seconds.
As the 400-meter sprint champion at the World Indoor Athletics Championships and with a time of less than 45 seconds, Zhang Guan has entered the top 20 in the 400-meter sprint rankings. He is already qualified to register for the 400-meter competition in the Athletics Golden League.
The U.S. team, which gave up the individual event of the 400-meter dash, also succeeded in winning the championship in the subsequent 4x400-meter race.
…
With the end of the last event, the women's 4x400m, this year's World Indoor Track and Field Championships also came to an end. The host Russia ranked first with 8 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 5 bronze medals. The US team ranked second after Russia with 7 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. Tied for third were China, Ukraine and Ethiopia, all with results of Two gold medals.
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