They promised to win the swimming championship, but what's with this "Grand Slam" thi

Chapter 23, the Championship Tournament, begins! Main quests begin!

The car sped along the highway.

It takes 13 hours to drive from Zhejiang Province to Tianjin, and with the need to eat and use the restroom along the way, we don't arrive until around 7 or 8 pm.

The competition venue, Jinshi Swimming Center, has two swimming pools, but entry and exit are not permitted at will, not even for athletes. They can only enter at specific times tomorrow or the day after to test the waters and familiarize themselves with the competition venue.

All of them have time limits.

This rule applies not only to championships but to all swimming competitions worldwide.

The athletes are given time to familiarize themselves with the competition venue, but it is not open at all times; this is to highlight the advantage of the host city, such as the athletes from Tsushi, who are certainly familiar with the place.

The other athletes were obviously strangers.

Don't underestimate the difference between swimming pools. You might be able to swim 23.10 seconds in your usual training pool.

But during the competition, I could only swim 23.20 seconds, and I always felt that I was a little short. This is a habitual issue in the pool; I only occasionally have that kind of explosive performance.

Therefore, Zhejiang Province also arranged for a swimming pool near the hotel where they were staying in Jinshi to facilitate daily training and adjustments.

They'll stay at a hotel tonight, and start training at the rented pool in Jinshi tomorrow; they'll also go to scout out the competition venue from 6 to 9 pm.

"The opening ceremony is on the morning of the 15th, and everyone must attend!"

"The competition officially begins this afternoon with the finals of the men's 400m freestyle, women's 400m freestyle, and 4x100m freestyle relay!"

"And... the preliminary and semi-final rounds of events such as the women's 100m butterfly and the men's 100m breaststroke!"

"This is the first day's competition!"

"..."

Standing in the aisle, Zhang Yadong took advantage of the time while driving to talk to the more than 40 athletes and coaches in the car about some important points and arrangements for the championship.

Each person was given a copy of the championship schedule for the 8 days.

"I'm going to have two matches on the first day!"

Sun Yang sat down next to Wu Jin, staring blankly at the schedule.

Wu Jin had obviously also noticed his 50-meter freestyle event.

Thank goodness, he was scheduled for the penultimate day, which gives him about two weeks to reach level 10 in [Basic Acceleration].

"Can you even do math?!"

After the 50-meter freestyle was completed, Wu Jincai turned to Sun Yang and said, "Is this two races? The 400-meter race has to be finished in one day. Don't you want to make it to the semifinals and finals?"

"If there are too many, you'll have to play 5 matches!"

"The 400m preliminary rounds, semi-finals, and finals, plus the 4x100m freestyle relay preliminary rounds and finals!"

"Oh right, 5 games?"

Sun Yang finally came to his senses, but Wu Jin immediately said, "However, based on your strength, you can only compete in two matches!"

400-meter preliminary rounds and relay preliminary rounds.

This is not sarcasm, but the truth.

But Sun Yang definitely didn't think so. Upon hearing Wu Jin's words, he immediately grabbed her by the neck and said, "You've only played two games. I'm definitely going to make it to the finals!"

"Save your breath, do you know how tiring it is to perform 5 shows a day?"

Even while being choked, Wu Jin remained righteous and indignant.

Let alone Sun Yang being only 11 years old, even if he were 16, not everyone could stick to playing 5 games a day.

The coach wouldn't let him do that either.

"Old Zhu definitely won't let you participate in the relay final!"

If a substitute can swim in the relay preliminary round, he's already incredibly lucky. If the main team wins the championship, he can also get a gold medal.

Moreover, Sun Yang doesn't even rank in the top five in the provincial team for the 100-meter freestyle, only slightly better than Wu Jin and a few others.

The worst part was that they didn't even get a turn in the relay, because according to the rules, a relay can only have a maximum of 6 runners. Although they prepared 8 people, they definitely had to make two preparations in case something happened to a team member.

Sun Yang is the seventh candidate, meaning that one of the six main candidates would have to have a problem for him to be selected.

"Damn it, what a jinx!"

"I bet you'll have a match!" "Hahaha!"

Sun Yang was laughing like a fool; the two of them were clearly used to bickering.

I slept and woke up along the way, and even had a meal in between. At 8:30 p.m., I finally arrived at the 7 Days Inn Water Avenue store in Jinshi. These days, even provincial teams don't have much funding.

Even in Zhejiang Province, approvals are limited, so people can only stay in these chain hotels.

The nearby Fukang Road Swimming Pool is the venue where Zhejiang Province has been training and practicing for the past two weeks.

Wu Jin will be training here tomorrow.

Two people share a room; Wu Jin and Sun Yang were obviously assigned to the same room.

"Are you done? I need to call my mom!"

While Sun Yangchao was texting Xu Wanqin, Wu Jin urged him on, and only then did Wu Jin hand him the phone: "Give it to me when you're done!"

"???"

Sun Yang stared at Wu Jin in disbelief, highly doubting the ownership of the phone: "Why? This is my phone!"

"Look at you, aren't you my brother?"

"I need to let my mom know I'm safe too!"

Didn't you mention that in your message?

Sun Yang picked up his phone to look at Wu Jin's chat history with his mother, but unfortunately... it had been deleted.

Wu Jin predicted Sun Yang's prediction.

"It wasn't in time..."

Wu Jin hurriedly said, "Hurry up and finish, then give it to me!"

Sun Yang: "..."

In the end, after a lot of bickering, the phone still ended up in Wu Jin's hands.

Sun Yang really got what he deserved.

Why did I give my phone to this guy?

……

The next morning, Wu Jin and Sun Yang got up on time and went to the nearby Kangfu Road swimming pool to exercise.

The schedule was almost the same as when I was with the provincial team: warm up first, then run to the hotel for dinner, rest for a while, and then start training.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Wu Jin looked at the level 9 (880/1000) basic acceleration skill and sighed.

It seems it will be a couple more days before I reach level 10, but the championship is about to begin.

Every member of the Zhejiang Provincial Team, dressed in their uniform provincial team attire, stepped off the bus with great pride and headed towards the venue of the championship – the Jinshi Swimming Center.

They've been scouting the area every night for the past two days and have encountered many skilled players from other provincial teams.

Both sides were eagerly anticipating the start of today's match.

The melodious and majestic singing resounded over the Jinshi Swimming Center, and countless athletes in various outfits gathered towards the opening ceremony venue.

Just then, the system, which had been silent for many days, suddenly issued a notification.

Ding!
[Congratulations, host, on participating in the National Swimming Championships and starting your professional main quest!]
[Main Quest]: Try participating in a formal competition to obtain new skill rewards.

As a professional swimmer, of course I have to participate in various competitions!

"Big brother, you've finally activated it!"

Looking at the virtual panel displaying text, Wu Jin was already incredibly excited about the 50-meter race a week from now.

In his previous life, he had no chance to participate in competitions, but in this life, less than a month after his rebirth, he was able to participate in the championship representing the country's top professional swimmers, which made him quite excited.

Of course, Sun Yang, who was standing next to him, was the same.

He was even more excited than Wu Jin, after all, the first event after the opening ceremony was his 400-meter freestyle race!
(End of this chapter)