King of Sports 139 Going At I

He upgraded the abilities of Zhang Shun's with three honor points.

After the upgrade, he could clearly feel that his body control and awareness had improved, it was easier to coordinate his movements with precision and his endurance seemed to have improved a great deal.

The fifth match day was the most intensive day since the start of the championship. It was also the busiest day for Tang Yan. He had to participate in the 400m, 200m preliminaries and finals which was a big test for his physical fitness.

Before game day began, Shen Qing came to look for him.

After continuously harvesting two gold medals, Shen Qing's attitude towards him became better and better and he was placed on the same pedestal as Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen, the super newcomers.

Tang Yan was still rather humble. In 2011, most of the domestic swimming scene was just so and so. The real opponents came from abroad.

"How are you feeling after the 1500m yesterday, is anything feeling uncomfortable?" Shen Qing asked with concern.

"No, coach, I haven't even used all of my power." Tang Yan replied with a small smile.

Shen Qing said with a smile: "The 400 meters and 200 meters are in the afternoon but the finals in the evening are back to back. Have you considering giving up a project?"

Tang Yan knew that Shen Qing was worried about him, but after the upgrade he gained more confidence in himself.

"Coach, it doesn't matter, just watch me break a few more records."

Shen Qing smiled bitterly. If it was someone else, he would have berated them to no end but Tang Yan had surprised him so many times in succession. He couldn't help but feel a sense of expectation and and give in.

"Then save some of your strength in the preliminaries, you'll need it for the finals." Shen Qing said.

Tang Yan nodded, turned and prepared to head out.

.....

His first event was the preliminaries for the 400m freestyle.

Although it was only the preliminaries, the crowd that gathered was rather substantial.

His main opponent of this preliminaries, was the veteran Chen Zuo, who was crushed by Tang Yan in various competitions.

However, he was held in high regard at medium and long distance events. He obviously didn't want to give up easily on this event. 

Tang Yan shook his arms on the starting platform, to get his blood flowing.

As the camera focused on him, there were screams in the audience, although the shortest of all the contestants everyone knew the energy contained in his body.

Chen Zuo was in the lane beside Tang Yan. As the referee went through the motions, he took a deep breath and adjusted his body.

Buzz!

With the buzzer, the swimmers shot into the water like a spear.

As Chen Zuo entered the water, he glided through quickly. Tang Yan's early rush was fierce. He didn't want to fall behind right from the beginning.

However, just as he emerged from the water with his first dolphin kick. He turned his head and saw Tang Yan in the next lane, the latter was still a step ahead of him.

Because of the relationship between height and armspan whilst Tang Yan had faster twitch muscles than most,  the distance he could cover was shorter than others due to his arms.

This was the reason why in previous races, Tang Yan always surfaced first and rushed into first place off the bat to gain a lead before everyone else got into their stride.

Tang Yan didn't pay much attention to Chen Zuo at this time. He was filled with excitement in his heart. After upgrading Zhang Shun, the distance covered when he dived off the starting platform was greater.

He could cover 1.5m previously but after the upgrade the taxiing distance after he hit the water had increased significantly. The speed and power of his kicks also increased.

After surfacing to the top of the water, he quickly opened up the distance between him and the other swimmers.

Since, he intended to retain his physical strength, though he was leading it was by a smaller margin than usual.

Chen Zuo besides Tang Yan seeing his relaxed expression, almost spat out blood.

In the end, Tang Yan easily won the preliminaries, with a time of 3 minutes 51 seconds 20, his time wasn't the best but he still ranked third among all the swimmers, successfully advancing to the evening finals.

The 200m preliminaries were almost exactly the same. He scored a time of 1 minute 50 seconds 21 and successfully reached the finals although ranking fifth.

....

The 400m freestyle final was first that night.

In this final, in addition to the old rivals Sun Yang, Zhang Lin and Chen Zuo, the veteran swimmer Lei Jianyu from Shanghai also attracted attention. The latter swam 3 minutes 51 seconds 11 in the preliminaries, showing excellent form.

Tang Yan appeared in the 3rd lane and to his right side was his teammate Sun Yang.

This was a new event for Sun Yang as well, it was the first glimpse of his transition from just focusing on long distance events like 800m and 1500m to encompass all freestyle events. 

The two had conversed before coming to the pool.  Sun Yang after he won the 1500-meters gold medal felt a boost to his confidence. His relationship with Tang Yan was good and as teammates they had healthy competition.

"I'll take this gold medal."

"Nah this one's mine, I let you have the other ones but this one is mine." Tang Yan said with a small grin.

"Oh is it now, I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

"The only thing you will be seeing is me, going to receive my gold medal."

"You wish!" Sun Yang said with an imposing manner.

The two looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

Just then, the referee signaled them to get into position.

Both of them have stepped onto the platform.

Although the interaction between the two before the game was benign but for the gold medal it was clear that neither of them was willing to give it up. 

"On your mark"

"Get set"

Buzz!

With the buzzer, the swimmers dove into the water almost at the same time.

After gliding a dozen meters, they fell into each other.

Sun Yang grabbed first place, although Tang Yan's diving distance increased significantly but with a height of 6'5 the armspan on Sun Yan was amazing.

However, what surprised everyone was Lei Jianyu, who performed well in the preliminaries. As they all surfaced, with sharp and quick kicks he followed after Sun Yang.

Tang Yan was taken aback, Lei Jianyu had come out of nowhere and suddenly hopped onto his radar.

However, this was a 400-meter race. He wasn't in a hurry. At this moment, he stayed behind Lei Jianyu and kept moving at a constant speed.

As the race passed the 30m mark, a fringe group was seemingly formed of Sun Yang in the second lane, Lei Jianyu in the first lane, Tang Yan in the third lane and Zhang Lin in the sixth lane.

These four quickly opened up a gap from the other four swimmers. After the first 50m turn, the gap between them and the other four was widened to three meters.

Chapter end