The final of the men's 400-meter sprint is held on the last day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships. On the same day, there is also the finals of the men's 4-by-400-meter race. The two games are only one and a half hours apart.
For the US team, there are two options for this day's game, one is to fight for the gold medal in the 400-meter sprint, and the other option is to give up the 400-meter sprint strategically and sprint for the gold medal in the 4 by 400 meters event.
In the 400-meter competition, in addition to Zhang Guan, the other athletes who entered the 400-meter final should have the strongest defending champion, Ereni Francisco.
Francisco is a Grenada athlete who once entered the 400-meter final of the Athens Olympic Games and achieved a good result of the fourth place. At that time, his score in the Athens Olympic Games final was 44.66 seconds, which can also be regarded as a world-class athlete.
Of course, Francisco is committed to defending this title. He thought that his biggest match was Campbell, but he did not expect to win a medal halfway. Although the score of 45.63 seconds in the semi-final is not very high, it can already be used to get a medal in this level of competition.
What Francisco is worried about is Zhang Guan's special running method. Francisco can feel that Zhang Guan did not do his best in the semi-finals, so there is still much room for improvement. Francisco still felt guilty about running 45.50 seconds abroad.
Francisco's 400-meter running method is special. He is an athlete who mainly runs in the early stage. He started to run fast after the start. After that, the second 100-meter, he will still sprint, and during the third 100-meter, his speed will still be fast leading to the last 100m, but in the last 100m, due to the earlier physical exertion, his speed will slow down. His last 100m takes more than 12 seconds. There are not many top athletes who use this running method.
In the final of the Athens Olympics, Francesco was the first athlete to enter the last 100 meters. When entering the last 100 meters, Francesco was still 0.2 seconds faster than Varina of the United States, but he only won fourth place, because Francesco spent 0.86 seconds longer than Varina in the last 100 meters, which was 0.66 seconds slower than Varina.
In terms of techniques, Francisco's running style is very restrained for athletes with poor physical strength, because, in the last 100 meters, everyone can't run fast, so Francisco's advantage, in the beginning, is enough to let him win the championship; But if you meet a very good athlete during the last one hundred meters sprint, Francisco will be overtaken.
Zhang Guan is the best athlete in the world who is good at sprinting in the last 100 meters.
...
At 9:30 pm Moscow time, the final of the men's 400-meter sprint officially began.
With a gunshot, the athlete's starting and sprint can be considered to be smooth. After all, it is a 400-meter sprint race, and almost no athlete will go to snatch the lead. But the game has just begun, and many coaches have started to show signs.
"The Americans are giving up the 400-meter sprint!" Yu Gui sighed.
On the field, the American players who participated in the final did not do their utmost, but it seemed like running a practice game, obviously giving up this gold medal. For the US team, they will participate in the 4-by-400-meter final after an hour and a half. They are unwilling to spend their energy in the single event of the 400-meter sprint.
Zhang Guan still runs at his rhythm, but Francisco follows his usual style of running. He ran quickly in the early stage.
Franco took the lead in the straight. In this period, he was about 0.3 seconds faster than Zhang Guan.
"Going straight, I will try to use this distance to gain an advantage." Francisco's speed has accelerated.
After all, the straight is better than the curve. Even if Zhang Guan does not change his rhythm, the speed is still slightly faster than the curve, but it is still a little slower than Francisco, who is accelerating. It's just that the explosiveness of Francisco is more general among 400-meter athletes, which also affects his performance in the straight.
This section is the fastest section of the 400-meter event. The athletes generally can still run to 11 seconds, but due to the starting position, the athletes seem to have ups and downs, which greatly affects the appreciation of the game.
At the end of the 200 meters, Francisco was slightly slower and began to adjust the rhythm. Although Francisco's explosive power is average, his cornering technique is still very good, and he is very good at accelerating in corners, especially the third hundred meters. His speed belongs to the level of the top-class athlete in the world.
Under normal circumstances, Francesco's third 100-meter time can also 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 opponent.
"This Francisco ran fast in the beginning! According to this calculation, his first 300 meters pulled a distance of a second and a half from Zhang Guan! But fortunately, with this way of running, during the last 100 meters, he must have no energy to sprint." Coach Yu only frowned slightly, but he was very relieved of Zhang Guan because he knew that Zhang Guan could completely overtake Francesco with the spirit of the last 100 meters.
Professionals who watched the game also knew that Francisco's forward sprint must be slow in the last 100 meters, but Zhang Guan's final sprint was surprisingly fast, so the focus of this game became how much advantage Francisco can get in the first three hundred meters, and can the advantage he get, make up for the disadvantage of the last hundred meters sprint.
The so-called expert looks at the doorway, the layman looks lively. Compared with professional sports coaches and athletes, the audience on the scene is a group of laymen. They only saw that Francisco was running fast in front. They only saw that Francisco led the other athletes by a large margin and rushed in first. The last straight runway, and therefore, they gave cheers to Francisco.
"Francisco! Take the lead! Sprint... Francisco!" The on-site commentator shouted Francisco'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 the 400-meter sprint race, the gap within 0.5 seconds is easy to make up for during the last 100-meter sprint; if the gap is within 1 second, although the difficulty is a bit larger, it may still be over at the last moment; but the 1.5-second gap is almost impossible to overtake.
Although Francisco's final 100-meter speed is relatively slow, he can almost run into 12.5 seconds, which is much better than the domestic athletes' results in the last 100 meters of 14 seconds. If you want to narrow the gap of 1.5 seconds, in the last 100 meters, Zhang Guan needs to run within 11 seconds.
In the 400-meter sprint race, it is extremely difficult to run into the last 100 meters for 11 seconds. In addition to the athlete's need for exceptional explosive power, the athlete also needs a good physical reserve in the previous 300 meters.
Zhang Guan is not short of these two points, he has both. After all, his physical energy consumption in the front 300 meters was only half, so for his last 100-meter sprint, he can run into 11 seconds without a doubt.
...
After entering the straight runway, Francisco already felt a little weak, he knew that he would slow down immediately, and then, he could only stick to the end with inertia and strong will.
"With such a big gap, Zhang Guan should not be able to surpass me!" The idea flashed from Francisco's mind, but at the same time, the narrator suddenly shouted Zhang Guan's name!
"Woo..." The audience in the venue made a startled voice, followed by a strong cry and cheers.
"What's the matter?" Francisco felt the atmosphere change, but he didn't look back. His eyes were fixed on the finish line because he felt that there was not much energy left, so he had to concentrate. It is easier for people to be resilient when they are focused so that they can continue to maintain a certain speed and reach the end.
At this very moment, Zhang Guan came up from behind and went side by side with Francisco, and this side by side did not maintain even for a second. Zhang Guan directly passed Francisco the next moment.
"It's Zhang Guan! He seems faster than he was in the semi-finals! He didn't do his best in the semi-finals!" Francisco panicked. The most feared thing he encountered was an athlete with a strong sprint ability.
Francisco's physical strength has bottomed out. At this time, he can't maintain the original explosive power. His early running method is also destined to cause this result. For Francisco, every step forward now feels so difficult. Every step forward is clenched, and each step is a struggle between willpower and physical strength.
In this physical state, if you are in a leading position, willpower will easily take the upper hand, and you are surpassed, there will be looseness in willpower, and the feeling of lack of physical strength will become more obvious.
Francisco is still working very hard, but his speed has slowed down involuntarily, especially the moment Zhang Guan surpassed him, his confidence to win was hit by a heavy blow, which is directly reflected in the speed.
"Zhang Guan! Surpassed! He completed the lead in the final moment! Toward the finish line! To the line!" The narrator took a breath and then said, "Congratulations to Zhang Guan for winning the men's 400-meter sprint!"
At this time, everyone turned their attention to the results column. Zhang Guan won his first indoor 400-meter sprint championship with a score of 44.87 seconds and ran again within 45 seconds. Francesco 45.43 seconds, compared to Zhang Guan was more than half a second slower, and the third place was Bahamas Brown, with a final score of 45.78 seconds.
As the 400m sprint champion of the World Indoor Athletics Championship and the results within 45 seconds, Zhang Guan has been able to enter the top 20 of the 400m sprint ranking list. He is already qualified to register for the 400m race in the Golden League of Track and Field.
The U.S. team who gave up the individual event of the 400-meter sprint also won the championship in the next 4-by-400-meter race.
...
With the end of the last women's 4 by 400 meters, the current indoor track and field world championships also came to an end. The host, Russia ranks first with 8 gold, 5 silver, and 5 bronze, while the US team is second only to Russia with 7 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze, ranking second and tied for third place with the Chinese team, Ukraine and Ethiopia has two gold medals.