King of Sports 183 Dead Weight 2

Although it seemed that hope was already slim, the Chinese fans clearly did not give up hope. After seeing the Chinese team lag behind, they still shouted for their team with their all.

The Chinese team's third swimmer was the veteran Zhou Jiawei.

After Zhou Jiawei entered the water, he sprinted forward without reservation.

Zhou Jiawei's strength itself was good. After a full sprint, he first closed the distance between him and sixth, reaching the 50 meter turn, he successfully overtook the Dutch team and took sixth. Then in the second half, you would expect he would have been tired after such a sprint but he seemed to have found strength from somewhere, speeding up again, successfully surpassing the British team, taking fifth.

With only the top four qualifying for the finals, Zhou Jiawei's magical play greatly brought back hope for the Chinese team.

But the cost was also huge. When the veteran hit the wall at the end, his left hand desperately grabbed the buoy to prevent himself sinking. His right hand was clutching his back, he had exerted too much force. It seemed like his old body was feeling the pain.

Tang Yan was the last swimmer and their last chance. He launched off the starting platform diving over Zhou Jiawei, catching the attention of everyone on scene immediately as he entered the pool.

Whilst all this was happening, in first place the Japanese team was overtaken by the US team. With Phelps' performance as third bat, they were able to close the gap and Nathan Adrian came out as the last swimmer and was able to overtake, beginning to create a gap.

After the Japanese team, in third and fourth was the German team and the French team.

Tang Yan and the French team were a distance apart.

After entering the water, Tang Yan switched up to a 8 kick frequency without any reservation.

After eight draws came out, he was advancing forward at a speed that was visible to the naked eye, narrowing the distance between him and the French swimmer bit by bit.

As the distance gets closer, the mood of the audience continued to rise, and the cheers were overwhelming.

Sure enough, it turned out that their wait was totally worth it.

After the 40 meter mark, Tang Yan successfully surpassed the French team. 

"Tang Yan! Tang Yan!" The audience could not help shouting out loud.

The German swimmer was only half a metre ahead.

They were only four or five meters away from the 50m turn. Tang Yan did not slow down, but flipped in advance.

After gliding to the pool wall, he kicked his legs and launched off the wall, his whole person shooting forward under water.

When he came out of the water, the audience of the whole stadium was boiling again.

Because of Tang Yan, he had surpassed Marco di Carli!

He had reached third place, leaving only the Japan and the United States in front of him.

"Tang Yan! Tang Yan!"

At this time, he and the American team star Nathan Adrian were a short distance away, while leading Tang Yan, there are only half a position left.

Tang Yan was still accelerating. When there were 30 meters left, he changed from 8 kicks to 9 kicks, and his speed increased dramatically.

"China! Tang Yan!"

When Tang Yan finally touched the wall, the cheers of the audience were boiling, as if to overturn the ceiling of the swimming centre.

The Chinese team received another cheer from the audience. Many people got up to applaud the Chinese team.

Xu Jiayu and Li Xiang both seemed very excited. They took off their swimming caps and kept waving, and then threw them vigorously into the crowd, yelling with excitement.

This was the vitality of youth.

The four headed into the player's passage together, but at this moment, Tang Yan noticed that Zhou Jiawei was leaning against the wall, and his face was a grimace.

"I can't support my waist." Zhou Jiawei gritted his teeth as he struggled to walk.

After leaving the sight of the audience and other swimmers, he finally couldn't hold it any more.

The excitement on Xu Jiayu and Li Xiang faces disappeared and was replaced by deep worry.

They knew the reason they made it into the finals this time was Tang Yan's heroic performance in addition to Zhou Jiawei comeback which brought them from 7th to 5th. Relying on Tang Yan alone, even if he was strong, it was impossible to chase from the seventh to the top three.

Tang Yan quickly responded and said, "Xu Jiayu, Li Xiang, help Zhou Weige to the medical room."

Hearing Tang Yan's voice, the two teenagers finally zoned back in. After nodding, they hurriedly helped Zhou Jiawei to the medical room.

Tang Yan turned to call the team medics. As he moved forward, he was lost in his thoughts. If Zhou Jiawei really couldn't participate, then they would really be in trouble. He might have to sprint the whole race with a 9 kick frequency and even then he wasn't sure if that would be enough to make up the difference.

....

The results of Zhou Jiawei's checkup showed that he had sprained his lumbar spine, he would be out for at least 2-3 weeks, taking him out of the finals.

With Zhou Jiawei unable to participate, they could only rely on the youngster Shi Yang for the butterfly stroke.

This result shocked the Chinese fans, filling them with regret and anxiety.

The characteristics of this medley Chinese team were similar to those of the US team. Their backstroke and breaststroke were weak so they could rely on the butterfly and freestyle strokes. Which proved viable when it was Zhou Jiawei on the butterfly but now with only Tang Yan left, even if he was strong, there was only so much he could do.

They felt their hopes of a medal being dashed.

From taking third in their group to Zhou Jiawei's injuries, the Chinese fans experienced big ups and downs.

But as the evening finals came around, they could only temporarily put this aside, because the first final of the evening was the 1500 meters.

Chapter end