When you do everything to the extreme

Chapter 54: 54. Being targeted and falling behind at the start! Is a loss a blessing?

The TV commentator at the scene shouted: "The race has begun! The athletes have rushed out of the starting line..."

"Look, our outstanding runners Xie Lei and Zhang Dongxuan took their time, starting steady in the pack and maintaining their own pace. The two top contenders, Paka and Searles, didn't rush to the front from the start, but also started steadily in the middle."

"And our most controversial contestant, Wang Xiao, didn't have a steady start. He was slightly faster than the other contestants. He seemed to be trying to grab the lead!"

"This is how he ran when he competed in the professional full marathon in Shanghai. He doesn't like to hide himself. In the Shanghai Men's Professional Full Marathon, he took the lead from the start and led all the way to the finish line, winning the championship and breaking the fastest full marathon record for a Chinese athlete."

"Let's see if Wang Xiao can achieve better results in this Beijing Half Marathon by continuing his running style from the Shanghai Full Marathon..."

The camera of the TV tower was focused on Wang Xiao among the athletes.

Many other media cameras and onlookers also looked at Wang Xiao.

Zhang Jun, Sun Hong, and Sun Li stood in the crowd, looking at Wang Xiao with complicated eyes as he slowly overtook several athletes around him.

Sun Hong said with some concern, "Master Wang insists on running the same way in the half marathon as in the full marathon. It's difficult for him to lead the race all the way to the finish line! The half marathon is only half the distance of a full marathon, but the time it takes for top international runners to complete a half marathon is less than half the time of a full marathon. In other words, half marathon runners are on average faster than full marathon runners and have more energy!"

"Master Wang is running a half marathon for the first time and has no experience, so he might suffer a loss."

Zhang Jun looked at Xie Lei, Zhang Dongxuan and other top domestic half marathon professional runners, and saw that they were still running steadily. He then looked at Paka, Sales, Wardy and other top international runners, and they also did not change their running style because of Wang Xiao's appearance.

It is still necessary to stabilize the rhythm in the early stage, accumulate physical strength, eliminate some weak players first, and decide the outcome in the middle and late stages!
but……

When Wang Xiao passed two athletes and was about to overtake the next athlete.

Suddenly, seven or eight athletes gathered around Wang Xiao, blocking him in the middle, preventing him from breaking out, and deliberately slowing down to force Wang Xiao to slow down as well, thus lowering his ranking.

Zhang Jun, Sun Hong, and Sun Li all looked at this scene in slight shock.

Zhang Jun said angrily, "What are they doing? They're deliberately targeting Wang Xiao on the court?"

Now, Zhang Jun no longer calls Wang Xiao Master Wang.

If Wang Xiao can no longer participate in competitions in the future, his contract with the Shanghai Athletics Association will be automatically terminated.

Zhang Jun may never have the chance to meet Wang Xiao again in the future.

Several people looked at Wardy, and sure enough, they saw Wardy looking at Wang Xiao with a smug smile on his face. He slowly passed the slowing Wang Xiao and said with a smile beside Wang Xiao, "I think not only will you not win the championship, you may not even make it into the top 100! My brothers will take good care of you."

Wardy made a victory gesture to the athletes surrounding Wang Xiao, then ignored Wang Xiao and focused on his own running.

Although, he firmly believed that Wang Xiao could not win the championship.

But, he felt that was not enough...

He felt that it was not enough to just make Wang Xiao lose the bet.

He also wanted to make Wang Xiao's results even worse, more embarrassing both at home and abroad, and force him to retire with a shameful result.

Several athletes around Wang Xiao were from Africa. They were part of a small group including Wardy, Ed and others. They had agreed in advance to target Wang Xiao in the competition.

The other athletes around him looked at Wang Xiao with a gloating look, and then ignored him. They did not regard Wang Xiao as an enemy, and it was enough for them to watch for fun.

Only Xie Lei, Zhang Dongxuan and other Chinese athletes felt that Wardy and others were a bit too much, and looked at Wang Xiao with sympathy, but they were also powerless to do anything about it. They just wanted to run a good result at this time, and then they stopped looking at Wang Xiao.

woohoo hoo...

Wang Xiao glanced at Wardy, Kappa, Sales and others who had already run to the front, without saying a word, keeping his breathing steady.

After the breakthrough in internal martial arts, Wang Xiao's control over breathing and physical strength became more comprehensive and precise than when he participated in the full marathon in Shanghai.

There were seven or eight athletes blocking his way in front, behind, and on both sides, running at a slower speed than most athletes.

Wang Xiao simply ran at the same pace as them for the time being, and did not go for the first position to take the lead, but instead accumulated more physical strength for the time being.

Although a half marathon isn't as long as a full marathon, the route is still over 20 kilometers. He didn't believe these seven or eight people would coordinate so well to block him. He also didn't believe they would still have the energy to target him in the second half of the race!

Although he now has the ability to break free from their encirclement, everyone still has plenty of physical strength. If they continue to deliberately target him at all costs, it will take a lot of physical strength to completely get rid of them.

That would be a waste of time and effort. It might completely disrupt Wang Xiao's rhythm and state, and consume a lot of physical strength. He would then have no chance of competing for the final championship.

After all, being an international top player is not just talk.

So, Wang Xiao, don’t be in a hurry!
It’s just the beginning.

"Haha, kid, think about how you're going to cry in front of the media after the game."

A black athlete next to him said with a smile.

The others didn't say anything, they just controlled their breathing and pace as they ran, but they surrounded Wang Xiao at this speed.

Wang Xiao didn't say anything, just kept running, his breathing becoming slower and longer.

Zhang Jun, who was not far away, asked Sun Hong to find the referee.

A short while later, Sun Hong returned and said helplessly to Zhang Jun, "The referee said they weren't doing anything, they were just running. Strictly speaking, there wasn't a foul, so there was nothing they could do! Two foreign referees even said it was fine and told us not to interfere with the athletes' performance."

Zhang Jun clenched his fist and punched the air fiercely, cursing, "Fuck!"

He watched helplessly as Wang Xiao was surrounded by seven or eight foreign athletes and was overtaken by more and more other athletes, until he was already ranked behind the top 100.

Now that we are so far behind, it is impossible for a miracle to happen again.

Not to mention, there were also several foreign athletes who targeted and the referees who ignored them.

Zhang Jun suddenly felt as if the air in his body had been deflated. He waved his hand and said, "That's it."

He turned to look at Li Zheng, who was not far away, and walked over quickly. He said to Li Zheng, "Director Li, our contestant Wang Xiao from Magic City has been targeted. Can you see it?"

He hopes Li Zheng can take action to deal with it.

However, Li Zheng glanced at Wang Xiao who was surrounded, smiled, and said, "Xiao Zhang, this is a game! Anything can happen. You can go talk to the referee, I can't do anything."

Zhang Jun said with a grim expression: "The referee said there was no foul, so they can't do anything about it."

Li Zheng also said immediately, "Then there's nothing I can do! Wang Xiao is a young newcomer after all, with little competition experience. He doesn't know how to handle it, so it's a blessing that he suffered a loss early. I just don't know if he will be able to participate in the competition in the future."

As Li Zheng spoke, his expression seemed full of regret, but the smile in his eyes was obvious. Zhang Jun could tell at a glance that Director Li of the Field Management Center was gloating.

Zhang Jun suppressed the bitterness in his heart and nodded, "Okay, thank you Director Li for your advice. I will talk to Wang Xiao about it and ask him to pay attention to it in the future."

Li Zheng smiled and said, "I hope it's not too late."

After saying that, Li Zheng ignored Zhang Jun.

Although Wang Xiao's performance in the Shanghai Men's Professional Full Marathon was indeed impressive, breaking the record and winning the championship, he was a genius who emerged out of nowhere in the field of track and field.

but……

In Li Zheng's opinion, there is no better thing than an uncontrolled genius.

Zhang Jun turned around and returned to Sun Hong and the others with a grim expression. He looked at the athletes in front of him who were no longer visible. Most of them had already run very far away.

But he could still vaguely see the shadows of Wang Xiao and others.

At the beginning, Wang Xiao was among the last few dozen athletes.

(End of this chapter)