Chapter 8: I Have Come to Break Records

At the city-level competition, there were still a few officials watching from above. Although... they were probably just watching out of politeness. Like most online commentators, they only needed to glance at the data sheets to offer their grand judgments.

Su Shen looked around at the middle school students beside him; it seemed that only his physique was the strongest.

This was 2004. Forget about fitness centers—systematic training methods weren’t widely known or accessible online. Most coaches still relied on outdated routines. Even the national teams didn’t fully grasp the most advanced training techniques.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have missed the golden age of training until his first trip to Europe and America gave him access to professional systems.

Upper body strength training? In 2004, that concept barely existed.

Neither were there specialized training regimens.

This directly caused a visible difference in the physiques of Chinese sprinters compared to foreign athletes.

They were robust and muscular, while domestic sprinters had noticeably smaller upper bodies.

Athletes like Su Shen looked like anomalies.

In the stands, Ningde Bao was also watching the race.

Though she appeared indifferent toward Su Shen on the surface, deep down she hoped, as Yang Yongqiang said, that the boy could truly perform well. As a professional coach at the sports school, it would benefit her both professionally and personally.

But she had been disappointed too many times—somewhat like the boy who cried wolf.

That didn’t mean she didn’t want to see promising talent emerge.

“Very calm. Not a trace of nervousness or unease. Even if it’s just a facade for a middle school student, it shows strong psychological resilience,” Ningde Bao said, focusing on the details only a professional coach would notice.

Minors often have unstable mindsets, fluctuating emotions—completely normal.

From this perspective, Su Shen left a good first impression on Ningde Bao.

However, in sports, mental stability alone isn’t enough. The key lies in your professional skill level and how far you’ve developed. That is paramount.

...

“Group three, get ready.”

After the previous runners finished, the referee told Su Shen’s group to prepare.

Su Shen’s preliminary race was in lane eight. Domestic competitions generally had no lane nine; eight lanes were the limit, and at school or township levels, there were even fewer. Lane eight was not favorable.

Seeing Su Shen in lane eight, Yang Yongqiang grew worried.

It meant it would be hard for him to gauge the speed of nearby athletes, making it impossible to leverage the advantage of “running faster because your opponents are fast.”

This was a disadvantage, so breaking his personal best in lane eight would be difficult.

That was the source of Yang’s concern.

“He’s in lane eight—that’s interesting,” Ningde Bao observed, a hint of amusement in her eyes.

It meant his strength had to be truly solid; he couldn’t rely on being “pulled along” by others.

“On your marks!”

Su Shen firmly planted his feet on the starting blocks, his mind automatically filtering out the surrounding noise. His heartbeat was steady, fully focused on the sound of the starting gun.

All the athletes here were at least sports students, so even their starting posture was much more professional than ordinary students.

They bent at the waist, lowered their heads, pressing their fingers on the track.

“Set.”

Su Shen began finely adjusting his breathing rhythm, a necessary skill among top athletes.

Your breathing pattern significantly affects your initial burst.

Fortunately, Ningde Bao was too far away to see this detail; otherwise, she would have been amazed.

---

She couldn’t even teach such breathing techniques professionally. Very few people in the country could. Su Shen was far ahead of his time.

“Bang———”

The race began.

Su Shen quickly pushed off the blocks, pounding hard on the rubber track.

Indeed, it felt much better than running on cinder tracks.

If the competitors knew Su Shen was even noticing the track’s texture at this moment, they’d probably faint from disbelief.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

The rubber track’s grip was far superior to that of cinder tracks, allowing him to better utilize his explosive start.

He darted forward like a cheetah.

Yang Yongqiang watched anxiously by the sidelines, thinking:

A good start, unaffected by the nerves of his first competition.

But Yang had seen Su Shen’s training so many times that his body had developed some resistance. For those unfamiliar with Su Shen, this start was astonishing.

Just at the start, he had already clearly distanced himself from all others.

What did this mean?

It meant his first few strides were far superior to those of a typical middle schooler.

Ningde Bao was instantly captivated. With her professional eye, she began analyzing Su Shen’s start.

A brief analysis widened her eyes.

This kid in lane eight was not only fast off the blocks but also radiated strength.

Especially his upper body power—his arm swings were noticeably more forceful than the others’, clearly visible to the naked eye.

His movements were relaxed, not overly tense.

His balance and coordination were excellent, with his hips, knees, and ankles all aligned along the midline.

He was approaching 30 meters—the typical zone where middle schoolers reach their maximum speed.

Ningde Bao’s gaze was fixed, unable to look away from the young man in lane eight.

At 30 meters, his top speed wasn’t as fast as expected. Hmm?

No, that wasn’t his top speed zone.

33 meters, 35 meters—not yet!

He was still accelerating... accelerating...

37 meters, 39 meters...

Only near 40 meters did Su Shen begin to hit his maximum speed.

This was a level that talented athletes trained at sports schools could reach.

Middle schoolers’ bodies hadn’t fully developed and couldn’t reach the professional athlete’s threshold where maximum speed is attained around 60 meters.

Due to less physical strength and endurance, acceleration in the early stages faded earlier.

Looking at the others in lanes 1 to 7, they all reached their top speed zone around 30 meters, but Su Shen didn’t reach it until nearly 40 meters!

Amazing!

By now, Su Shen had clearly pulled ahead, though being in lane eight made the gap less obvious.

People’s gaze tends to focus on the middle lanes.

Only someone like Ningde Bao, who kept her eyes on Su Shen, could notice.

He maintained his high-speed zone for a long time, showing superior endurance and cardiovascular ability compared to other middle schoolers.

Yang Yongqiang, tell me again he hasn’t had professional training?

---

At around 70 meters, Su Shen had clearly overtaken everyone by several meters.

By 85 meters, the gap grew even wider.

Don’t underestimate a few meters—in a 100-meter race, even half a meter is significant.

Several meters was huge.

In the final stretch, Su Shen expertly eased off and crossed the finish line.

After crossing, he raised his head to check his electronic time: 11.75 seconds. Not bad.

He recalled winning here in his previous life with 11.72 seconds. Now, even holding back, he could run 11.75 seconds. This restart showed clear improvement, no time wasted.

At that moment, Yang Yongqiang approached and said, “Xiao Tian, you didn’t need to run so fast at the start. Luckily, you slowed down later; otherwise, the burden would be too heavy and recovery harder.”

The faster you run, the slower your recovery—something even Usain Bolt couldn’t avoid.

It’s just a matter of how long recovery takes.

Sigh, still just a kid; he probably wanted too badly to prove himself.

Yang thought running 11.75 seconds in prelims was unnecessary and might affect later rounds.

But Su Shen waved him off, signaling no worries. “Coach Yang, I’m fine. That was just a warm-up. Today, I want to try breaking Xiangshan High School’s 100-meter record.”

“No problem, just be careful next time. It’s your first time pushing so hard...” Yang began, then hesitated, realizing what Su Shen had just said.

Warm-up? Just warm-up? That was an electronic time of 11.75 seconds—hand times must be around 11.5 seconds! And he called that warm-up?

Although Su Shen had clocked a hand time of 11.2+ seconds last week, that was on a cinder track, not rubber.

Wait, maybe Yang was falling into a misconception.

Even though it was a hand time, the cinder track was slower, so...

This kid’s true performance might be better than a hand time of 11.25 seconds.

Could it be that he was already running 11.21 to 11.22 seconds? Perhaps even below 11.2 seconds?

Yang felt like he was going crazy.

Currently, the middle school track meet record in Xiangshan City was just 11.19 seconds, and this place didn’t produce many athletes.

The record wasn’t ridiculously fast.

But for a local town sports teacher, that was a city-level record.

Honestly, she had only hoped Su Shen would perform decently and maybe win a medal; breaking the record outright was beyond her expectations.

She knew these records were often held by older athletes with manipulated ages—a systemic flaw—just for show.

But Su Shen was a genuine middle schooler who had just turned 15 at the end of August.

Seeing Su Shen’s bright smile, she suddenly thought:

This boy was probably here not just for a medal, but to break the record.

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