On the afternoon of September 9, 2007, the Raul Guidobadi Stadium, which had been deserted for some time, was crowded with people, but the audience of more than 5,000 was almost over noon. Novels.

Today is the day of the Leti Grand Prix. As Italy, which has two IAAF World Tour events, both the Golden League and the Grand Prix, the people's love and attention for track and field competitions have always been far more than some other ordinary countries.

The first competition at the IAAF Grand Prix Leti Station was called the Leti Games, which was proposed by Sandro Giovanelli, a member of the IAAF Competition Commission in 1971. Six world records have appeared in this stadium.

Although the World Track and Field Championships have just ended less than a week, there are a large number of contestants in the Grand Prix this year. More than ten events have been set up in men's and women's events, attracting many world-class well-known athletes to participate.

Among them, the number of people in the men's 100m event exceeded that of ordinary Grand Prix, with 15 people, and it was divided into two stages: the preliminaries and the finals.

Moreover, the men's 100m is the only event in this Grand Prix that has a preliminary and finals. At the beginning of the Lety Grand Prix this afternoon, the first one to appear was the 100m preliminary.

In the waiting area of ​​Raul Guidobadi Stadium, Asafaville looked at the athletes who were participating in the 100-meter men walking by not far in front of him.

"Michael Flat, Wallace Spearmont, Marvin Anderson, Brandon Christie..."

Among these people, he is familiar with them, Michael Flat and Marvin Anderson, both of them are athletes from the Jamaican Track and Field Team, and they have many partners with him.

Wallace Spearmon is not unfamiliar with him. As a 200-meter special athlete in the world, although he didn't know why he participated in the men's 100-meter men's 100-meter men's 100-meter men's 100-meter men's 100-meter men's 100-meter men's like Jason Gaby and Ye Qin.

"As for the others..."

Asafaville couldn't help but shake his head. If it were the past, except for a few athletes, he wouldn't care about who other opponents were.

Especially these people are not in the same group as him in the preliminaries. The few people he noticed just now are all players in the first group of the preliminaries, and he is in the second group of the preliminaries.

Even if he really has to be vigilant and pay attention to his opponents, he would have reached the finals before.

But in this game, he inadvertently began to pay attention to these people, their names, and their best results, which would pose a threat to him.

"Don't think so much, Asafaville, you need to be firm in your beliefs."

After adjusting his breathing slightly, Asafaville did another starting exercise on the warm-up track.

His warm-up was not so serious before, but since the Osaka World Championships, he always felt an unprecedented pressure.

It seemed that he could feel that the players around him who were waiting for the second preliminaries last time were all focused on him.

Not only the players, but I think media reporters should also be around him after they appear later.

Especially if he performed poorly in the next game...

Just like in Osaka before, he got off the men's 100-meter race field, media reporters interviewed him no less than those who won the championship before, but these people did not come to congratulate him, but were ridiculed with some ridicule.

"Ye Qin and Jason Gaby both put huge pressure on me after they came on the court. When I saw Ye Qin catching up at the end when I was almost eighty meters, I noticed from the perspective that his feet were already standing in the same position as me. I was a little panicked. I didn't join the final gold medal competition, I gave up in the game, and I stopped and continued running at that moment."

On August 27, 2007, facing an interview with British BB TV, Jamaican star and world record holder admitted that he lost in the 100-meter final by his mentality rather than his personal strength.

Former American sprinter Michael Johnson was critical of Asafaville's performance and said: "In the men's 100-meter showdown at the World Championships, every athlete should have eliminated distractions and given all his strength, but we can clearly see Asafaville, he was thinking, I want to lose, and then he gave up the game at that time. Winning and losing are actually not the most important thing. What is really disappointing is that he lowered his head in the face of his opponent!"

Asafaville stood silently on the warm-up track, his mind lingering in his mind about the criticism he had seen during the week.

He admitted his shortcomings calmly and his mentality was not adjusted well enough.

But even so, no press will let him go, letting a world record holder be beaten by other players on the men's 100m final track of the World Championships.

He understood that what Michael Johnson was talking about was the facts, and the other party saw it thoroughly and analyzed all his short moments of thoughts on the 100-meter track in the World Championships final.

But he still felt pain and anger in his heart!

"I will break the world record I set in 2007, and yes, I promise everyone that I am in good shape and I have the strength!"

When I interviewed reporters at the beginning of the year, I seemed to be vivid in my mind, but after the World Championships, someone used the sentence he had said and mocked him.

Facing the positive challenge of Ye Qin and Jason Gaby, he lost, so the loser is naturally not worthy of sympathy, even if he holds the world record.

The 9.77-second man's 100-meter world record was the first time he ran this result at the 2005 Athens Grand Prix, breaking Morris Green's previous world record and reaching the throne of the 100-meter flying man.

Later, in 2006, he tied his own world record twice in Gateshead and Zurich in the UK, but after the World Championships, it seemed that this honor had lost its former glory.

"I don't want to become a laughing stock..."

Asafaville clearly felt his blood rushing rapidly, his whole body was getting hot and hot. He was depressed and lost a week after the World Championships. Before this Lety Grand Prix, he could no longer continue to suppress it.

His fourth bat in the World Championships performed very well. He was in fourth place after getting the baton and chased to second place, bringing a silver medal to Jamaica 4x100m relay team and breaking the Jamaica men's 4x100m national record.

I lost to Ye Qin and Jason Gaby in the 100-meter head-on match of the man, but I still ran within 10 seconds, and the result of 9 seconds and 9 seconds is no longer bad.

I just didn't perform well!

“Asafa, Asafa…”

A low cry interrupted his reverie.

Asafaville turned around and saw his teammate Dwight Thomas, who was 4x100 meters in Jamaica, calling him.

"It's time to play!"

Dwight Thomas waved to Asafaville, indicating that the game time had come. The first group of players in the men's 100m preliminaries ended, and the second group of players was on the court.

"Hey, Asafa, are you okay?"

Dwight Thomas asked with a somewhat concerned tone as he looked at Asafaville's silent and solemn appearance.

He is two years older than Asafaville and is an athlete in the men's 100m and men's 110m hurdles for the Jamaica Track and Field Team. Before Asafaville rose in the men's 100m event, he helped the Jamaica Track and Field Team win many championships in various events in the Caribbean Sea in Central America. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he even won fifth place in the 200m event.

However, although Jamaica's track and field strength was not weak at that time, its overall level was not particularly outstanding compared to other Caribbean countries, and it was far behind the United States.

The real sense of Jamaica's sprinting event can qualify to challenge the United States team, but it started with the rise of Asafaville. In 2005, Asafaville broke the world record of Morris Green for six years, and brought unprecedented confidence to Jamaica's track and field track and field.

Although many people outside the world have questioned Asafaville's ability in major competitions and their poor mentality during this period, as a teammate of the same track and field team, Dwight Thomas, like Yusé Bott and some other Jamaican athletes, are willing to stand behind him and support him.

Sprinting is never an easy task.

In a particularly world-class competition, the pressure that needs to be borne is unimaginable to outsiders. Asafaville cannot bear the burden of the competition. Although they all feel it is a pity, they can all have a deep understanding.

A man who is the world's number one throne in 100 meters is not so easy to sit. If he is not careful and performs mistakes in the wrong way, he will become the target of criticism for everyone.

"It's okay, Dwight!"

Asafaville shook his head slowly, his expression still a little cold.

Dwight Thomas has a good relationship with him. They were teammates of Jamaica's relay team in 2002, but some things can only be tasted by themselves and cannot be shared with outsiders.

"Relax, Asafa!" Dwight Thomas gently patted Asafaville on the shoulder, smiling with a white teeth, "Although the World Championships is a big scene, man, it's just a game after all. Winning and losing are normal, but you see, you are standing on the track again, and you still have many games to participate in next. If you keep immersing in the past, your entire sports career is over."

Asafaville was slightly silent, looking at Dwight Thomas, and suddenly a smile flashed across the corner of his mouth, and he stretched out his fist and touched the other party gently, "Brother, you're right!"

The World Championships are over, and the competition is over, no matter whether it is scolding or ridicule to me.

The competition was over from the moment I saw Ye Qin catching me on the track and feeling panicked.

What I need to face now is not what has been gone, what I need to face is what is about to happen.

I came to Leti, Italy to participate in this men's 100m race, for this?

No matter how important a game is, as a professional athlete, you will lose if you lose, but I still have the next game and many more games.

It seems that many things that have already come to my mind have already thought of, and after Dwight Thomas clearly said it, everything becomes clear.

No need to complain, the game continues!

"Let's go, Dwight, come on the field!" After re-adjusting his mentality, the solemn expression on Asafaville's face gradually disappeared, and there was no hesitation in his eyes, and replaced by the once world's most powerful fighting spirit.

...

“on your marks!”

In Raul Guidobadi Stadium, the second group of the men's 100m preliminaries began.

Asafaville stood on the sixth track and deafened the various sounds in the stands on the sidelines. He ignored the various cameras raised by the reporter on the right side of the track.

The opponents standing beside him are Mark Burns of Trinidad and Tobago, King Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis, his teammate Dwight Thomas, and two unfamiliar Italian home court players, from Canadian Hank Palmer and others.

But now, it doesn't matter.

In this race, unless Jason Gaby and Ye Qin are there, no one else will be taken seriously by him.

He let out a sigh of relief, slowly walked up to the runner, bent down and waited.

“Set!”

Bang!

The gunshots of the game rang out.

Asafaville rushed out of the track almost as the gunfire sounded, and pedaled vigorously, and instant muscle burst. Just a start, Asafaville showed his top starting explosive strength.

He is nearly 1.9 meters tall, nearly 200 pounds in size, and strong muscle strength. At this moment, he is fully demonstrated through a short start acceleration.

Trinidad and Tobago player Mark Burns also started very quickly in the seventh lane, but after only two steps of the starting lineup, they were surpassed by Asafaville.

The Italian player Alessandro Guazi on the fifth lane, who was on the left track of Asafaville, felt even more like he had just raised his head and was about to accelerate. Asafaville beside him had already "buzzed" like a sports car and flew forward.

Ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters...

After Asafaville broke out of the starting line, he ran to the first place among the eight players in just a few steps, and continued to increase his speed.

In just one acceleration run, the other players had already been separated by one or two positions.

Forty meters, fifty meters, sixty meters...

Asafaville ran faster and faster, and almost everything was empty in his mind. His eyes were all about the finish line ahead, whether it was the opponents around him, the reporters and audiences on the sidelines, or the various media reports and criticisms during this period. At this time, he left these things behind him.

He just wants to run!
To be continued...