King of Sports 118 Novice

Their bodies hung in the air and then splash!

They were off!

Guo Ningfan's tall figure snuck ahead into the water first, he sunk about half a meter and glided a for a few seconds using the momentum from his dive,  sneaking ahead a few meters.

Then he smoothly transitioned into his first kick a flutter kick swiftly hitting the water and his arms came up in an overhand motion and quickly crossed forward. 

Although there was no imperative swimming style in the freestyle competition, Guo Ningfan was using the front crawl stroke.

The swimming stroke was regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, it was the de facto style used during a freestyle swimming competition.

His form was fluid and his speed fast.

"So fast!"

"Did you see how smooth his transition was, so smooth."

"He's actually a robot."

"He is great shape today, do you think he can break his PB (Personal Best)!"

...

Guo Ningfan attracted the praise of the other swimmers. As the absolute star and main force of the city swimming team, although his main forte was the 200m freestyle, his time for 50m was definitely among one of the best in the team.

Shifting their focus from Guo Ningfan they turned to Tang Yan to find he had completely disappeared underwater!

...

Tang Yan was wading forward incredibly fast, his rapidly kick up and down in flutter kicks.

Guo Ningfan's speed was awfully fast, he swam nearly 30 meters in a dozen seconds. According to his speed, his time could cut in sub 25 seconds, which was provincial level!

Guo Ningfan held the lead still after his graceful start he had put a fair distance between him and Tang Yan.

Where he had systemised training and knew what form to take to minimise drag and water resistance, Tang Yan was relying on the system and whilst he had gained a portion of Zhang Shun's amazing swimming abilities, he had no such knowledge.

Tang Yan was currently holding his breath underwater. Putting his all into forcing his arms and legs forward as fast as he could. 

Since the initial dive into the pool, he hadn't surfaced for air maintaining his form underwater.

Remaining completely submerged, using the knowledge he gained from unlocking Zhang Shun, he had been practising since arriving back in town and with his current abilities he could hold his breath for over 6 minutes. 

On the other hand Guo Ningfan had surfaced after the 14m mark.

With that though he gained a tremendous lead in the beginning, Tang Yan was rapidly closing in.

Swimming underwater meant you encountered less resistance than you would find on the surface due to the lack of drag created by surface waves.

Since water is much denser than air, its resistance is 1,000 times higher than that of air. So by swimming underwater, his position favoured penetration into the masses of water, so he could more efficiently glide than he could on the surface.

Swimmers at depths greater than 50cm avoid wave drag. The energy dissipated by surface waves slows down forward movement. By passing beneath this turbulence, underwater swimming is more efficient.

With all this in his favour Tang Yan was encroaching on Guo Ningfan.

But Guo Ningfan was fast approaching the end.

"What the hell, how is Tang Yan so fast!"

"I swear he hasn't surfaced, how can he hold his breath for so long!"

"He's so fast!"

But Guo Ningfan reached out his long arms and with one last kick, he touched the wall.

With that though close, Tang Yan lost.

Leaning up, Guo Ningfan asked:

"Uncl....Coach, what time did I get?!"

"24.3 seconds." Guo Yong said.

"24 seconds!" The swimmers at the side couldn't help but marvel. This achievement, was on the provincial team level. 

Whilst everyone broke into chatter, Guo Yong turned to Tang Yan. 

Tang Yan gazed up and said: "My time...."

"Forget your time, you've never had proper training right, that's the only explanation for what you did right there."

Seeing Tang Yan's puzzled face, Guo Yong continued: 

"Qin Hailong said you had experience swimming."

"Uhmm...not competitavely..."

Sighing, Guo Yong looked him over shaking his head. 

"I'll stick to my word, but you certainly need a lot of work. You have so many basic flaws. Your time was 26.02 seconds."

Then turning to his team, he pointed at a kid in the front and said:

"Fang Chu tell him what he did wrong."

"...Ughh did wrong...Coach."

"Yes, did wrong, you watched the race right, okay then tell him what he did wrong."

"Ughh...he....ugh"

"He..stayed underwater" came a whisper.

"...Oh..he stayed underwater..Coach" said Fang Chu.

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"Finally, but that's not explaining it." said Guo Yong.

"Song Ma, explain."  Guo Yong said looking over to the kid, who had helped out Fang Chu.

Song Ma timidly looked up then said clearing his throat.

 "The FINA has a 15m limit on how far you can swim underwater at the start and after a turn. This happened after Japan's Masaru Furukawa won Olympic gold by swimming the 200m breaststroke underwater by only coming up to breathe in the turns. And then David Berkoff also did the same thing breaking world records so they put a limit in place to prevent it.  It can also put your life in danger, at least when done for longer distance events.

Tang Yan was  stunned, he had bare bones knowledge on swimming even after trying to research it. He had no idea there was such a limit. 

"Exactly, in a proper race. Let alone a time, as soon as you passed the 15m limit you would have been disqualified. This is swimming not free diving or snorkeling!" came Guo Yong.

"Ahhh, sorry Coach I really didn't know. If you want....I can go again?" 

"Oh you sure well will do, since you wanted in, your in." 

Guo Yong then turned and shouted: "Tian Yang!"

Out came a man from among the group. He looked a lot older than Guo Ningfan. About his mid twenties, twenty-five-six. Although he looked average, he was rather tall and 6'3 and well built.

Tian Yang's debut didn't attract the female swimmers enthusiasm like Guo Ningfan, but it attracted a burst of words from the male swimmers.

Because Tian Yang, was a swimmer retired from the provincial team!

He had come down to the city team after an injury.

He had torn his rotator cuffs and his biceps and with competition in the Zhejiang Province having been fierce in recent years. He choose to retire to the city team.

But in peak form he had been one of the main forces of the provincial team!

And more importantly, Guo Ningfan's main forte was the 200-meter freestyle, but Tian Yang's main event was the 50m freestyle!

"Warm up and get ready."

...

"On your marks

Guo Yong shouted from the side of the pool.

Get set!

The two men bowed down and grabbed the front of the platform with both hands.

"Go!"

With the order, Tian Yang and Tang Yan successively dove into the water.

.....

Tian Yang's hands began to alternately paddling back and forth.

Like Guo Ningfan, his movements were also a standard front crawl style. The difference was that his arms were longer, so that the area of ​​his stroke was larger and as such his speed was naturally faster.

"He's still got it, he's even faster than Guo Ningfan!"

"He definitely deserves to be on the provincial team. I still can't believe he choose to come down!"

"It looks like he's recovered well from his injury, maybe he'll go back up.

"Do you think he'll get sub...24 seconds?!"

...

Tian Yang's form attracted a round of praise from the sidelines.

But at this time, they were attracted by a crisp sound of water.

A figure, like a flying fish wandering in the water...

Chapter end