The finals will have a grand entrance ceremony.
Each athlete will have a few seconds of close-up footage while they walk through the tunnel.
They can perform various celebratory moves.
Behind them will be a large screen displaying the national flag.
Chen Shu and the four members of the Pan Zhan Le team emerged from the tunnel, directly posing in front of the screen with a cool victory gesture, and the camera was locked on them.
“Mom and Dad, look, it's him!”
“Chen Shu!!!”
Zhang Jing Yu slammed his bowl onto the coffee table, spraying food out of his mouth.
Zhang's father and mother, however, looked at the figure in sunglasses and the red national team uniform on the television.
“It really does seem to be Chen Shu!”
“He's grown so much taller!”
“He must be over 1.7 meters tall now?”
“He must have gone through a growth spurt!”
Zhang’s father's last comment made Zhang’s mother burst into laughter.
“I remember when he came to our house last year, this kid was already almost as tall as me!”
“Amazing, he's an Olympian now?”
“You, you…...don't you feel ashamed?”
“If I were your classmate, I wouldn't play with you anymore!”
Zhang’s father couldn't help but make a final sarcastic remark to his son.
How can he connect everything to himself?
Plus, how could Chen Shu not play with me?
Junior high school students don't have that concept, right?
Zhang Jing Yu rolled his eyes, but didn't bother to argue with them.
They had no idea about the brotherly bond between Chen Shu and him!
“Quiet down, it's starting!”
Zhang Jing Yu stood his ground for once.
He watched Chen Shu on TV, stretching and warming up before stepping onto the starting block.
“When did this guy develop those muscles?”
“Amazing!”
Looking at Chen Shu, sporting an eight-pack abs and pecs, Zhang Jing Yu couldn't help but feel a little envious.
The swim goggles and cap, combined with the white national team swim trunks…...so cool!
Zhang’s father and mother also stared intently at Chen Shu on the TV.
“Alright, up next is the men’s 100-meter freestyle relay!”
“We see the Chinese young star, Chen Shu, in the leadoff position, who had a remarkable performance in the preliminaries yesterday!”
“He'll be competing against Australian star Flynn Southam, American backstroke world champion Hunter Armstrong…...for that first place spot!”
“I wonder if Chen Shu can maintain the same performance as yesterday in the finals!”
“Let's watch and see!”
“Okay, the race is about to begin!”
With a beep sound, everyone prepared for the start.
Ding!
The starting gun fired, and Chen Shu, in the fourth lane, immediately jumped into the water.
0.68!
Chen Shu’s reaction time.
It was the slowest among the eight athletes.
The fastest was Hunter Armstrong of the US team. This guy has won multiple world championships in the 100-meter backstroke, and he was also the champion in the mixed relay at the last Olympic Games.
0.48!
It's almost the limit of human reaction time.
Just the start, he was 0.2 seconds behind!
“Okay!”
“This is Chen Shu’s best starting time!”
Looking at the reaction time displayed on the big screen, Cui Deng Rong, who was watching the live broadcast backstage…...clenched his fist tightly.
It was obvious that he was very nervous.
After all, this was the finals!
It's all about the medals!
Chen Shu was too young.
Compared to the other seven athletes, he was not only the youngest…...but also lacked experience in competition.
It's normal for him to have the slowest reaction time.
But!
Just as Cui Deng Rong worried that Chen Shu would fall behind everyone else in the first leg.
Several Chinese swimmers who were also watching the live broadcast, all started screaming.
“Third!”
Zhang Yu Fei, who had just finished the 4*100-meter women's freestyle relay, raised her arm and shouted: “Xiao Shu, go!”
“Go!”
Everyone was shouting, watching Chen Shu, who emerged from the water, already in third place.
“Third?!”
“This kid is so fast?”
Cui Deng Rong couldn’t believe his eyes!
After all, he had been coaching Chen Shu for almost a month, and he knew Chen Shu's skills inside and out.
He was a late-stage swimmer.
The faster he swam, the faster he would become!
At the beginning, he was always the last one in the swimming team.
He would only start to show his late-stage speed after the 50-meter turn.
He would catch up to all the swimmers ahead of him one by one.
Even in the 50-meter freestyle, Chen Shu would also make a late push in the last 25 meters.
But now, this kid was already in third place right after emerging from the water, only behind Australia and the US? !
“Oh no, this kid is swimming recklessly!”
“His rhythm is all messed up, why did he start so fast?”
Cui Deng Rong could only think of one possibility, that Chen Shu had used all his late-stage power in the early stages.
He didn't know that Chen Shu now had a time frame where he could activate his acceleration skill for the entire race.
So, he activated the skill as soon as he jumped into the water.
“I forgot to tell this kid!”
Cui Deng Rong was anxious and kept thinking.
He could only guess that Chen Shu had given his all for this finals.
He wanted to give it his all from the beginning to secure an advantage…...
But if he did that, what about his late-stage…...
“Hm?”
Cui Deng Rong watched Chen Shu, who had only swam 20 meters, and now…...he was actually in first place.
First place?
“When did he overtake two of them?”
“Hunter Armstrong is a decent freestyle swimmer, isn't he?”
Cui Deng Rong couldn't help but blurt out his thoughts.
Zhang Yu Fei, who was next to him, hurriedly replied: “Just now, he overtook one at 10 meters and another at 20 meters!”
“So fast, Xiao Shu is swimming so fast!”
“I feel like he’s faster than Wang Hao Yu!”
Yes!
Chen Shu's speed was so fast that everyone couldn't believe their eyes.
Even Chen Shu’s three teammates, who were on the sidelines, were shocked by his initial burst of speed.
At 25 meters, he had already secured his advantage.
And…...this advantage was continuing to widen.
“This kid must have taken something!”
“But it’s hard to say!”
“He is using all his late-stage power in the early stages?”
Pan Zhan Le and the others had the same thought as Cui Deng Rong.
But the facts proved…...Chen Shu's speed was getting faster!
There was no slowdown or fatigue.
A half-body length, then a full body length…...when Chen Shu turned underwater at 50 meters, he was ahead of the American team by a whole body length.
Hunter Armstrong, who holds the Olympic champion and world championship titles, could only watch as the young swimmer in the next lane pulled further and further ahead.
Although he excelled in backstroke, his freestyle wasn’t slow either, but compared to Chen Shu, who specialized in the 100-meter freestyle and had a cheat code, Hunter Armstrong was clearly not in the same league.
“Alright!”
“Our 13-year-old Chinese swimmer, Chen Shu…...he is leading the first leg with a clear advantage!”
“It’s unbelievable, everyone thought he was just a substitute!”
“But we can clearly see that he is the absolute mainstay of the men’s 4*100 freestyle relay!”
“He has withstood the challenges of the first leg…...he is ahead of Hunter Armstrong of the US team by half a body length!”
“And the gap is still widening!”
CCTV's commentator was roaring with excitement.
“Chen Shu is 0.3 meters per second faster than the second-place American and Australian teams!”
“My goodness, he is still accelerating!”
“He has pulled ahead of second place by a full body length!”
“What kind of speed is this!!”
“He has literally replicated Pan Zhan Le's miracle in the last leg of yesterday’s early morning race!”
“He touched the wall!”
“Our Chinese team is the first to touch the wall, ahead of the second-place American team by nearly two meters!”
“Ahhh, 47.20!”
“Chen Shu swam the first leg in 47.20 seconds!”
“He has broken the under-18 men's 100-meter freestyle world junior record!”
“Ahhhh!!!”
The commentator was so excited she couldn't control herself.
Only after a few seconds…...she said: “Chen Shu has pushed this record forward by 0.1 seconds!”
“A full 0.1 second improvement!”
Fu Yuan Hui, the world champion who was commentating on this finals.
She screamed this whole paragraph with a broken voice.
She was simply too excited.
“A 13-year-old swimmer!! Broke the world junior record!”
47.20!!
The new world junior record for men's 100-meter freestyle!
The previous record was set by David Popovici, a Romanian world-renowned swimmer, on July 8, 2021, at the European Junior Championships in Rome, with a time of 47.30!
Chen Shu was wrong.
Because at this European Junior Championships, Popovici swam the first leg of the men’s 4*100 freestyle relay with a time of 47.56!
Breaking the junior world record of 47.57 set by Russian athlete Minakov in 2020.
And then in the finals!
He broke the record again, achieving 47.30!
He broke the world junior record twice in one competition.
But now…...both records have become history.
Because a new king of the 100-meter freestyle junior world…...has been crowned!!
He has an incredibly prominent name!
Chen Shu, a 13-year-old swimmer from Suzhou, China!