Chapter 350: The Afternoon To Meet At the Ministry of Civil Affairs (5)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Worried that she might get too complacent and proud, resulting in a drop in her performance, Zhang Shulin lectured her sternly right away, “Focus your attention and spend it all toward the event itself! Other than the event, everything else is only an illusion!”
Knowing that her coach had her best intentions at heart, s.h.i.+ Guang smiled.
Beep! Beep!
The whistle sounded out as the judges stood up and went ahead and the swimmers moved up their diving platforms respectively, while cheers broke out among the spectators. Standing on her diving platform, s.h.i.+ Guang looked at her own relatives and friends that were here to support her. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.
Bending down, her legs were positioned one before the other while her body arced into a powerful stance.
Focusing her attention, she moved her eyes toward the wavy surface of the waters, forcing herself to focus on it entirely.
At this point, no matter what it was, she heard nothing at all. The only thing in her eyes were those clear, blue waters…
When the starting pistol rang out, s.h.i.+ Guang bolted into the waters right away. Her arms were stretched out to their maximum as her feet started flapping against the waters. This seemingly normal swim looked like a graceful image when done by s.h.i.+ Guang as the waters spread by her body in a smooth current—it was perfect, without any flaws.
Not only was it beautiful, she was fast as well!
The cheers from the spectators were relentless.
Grandma sat at the viewing area with her back straightened while gripping her fists tightly. Fixating her gaze at s.h.i.+ Guang in the water, her eyes hinted of nervousness and worry.
Mo Jin was sitting beside her, a.s.suring her, “Don’t worry, grandma, don’t worry! s.h.i.+ Guang will definitely be fine! She’ll definitely make it into the provincial team!”
In reality, she was not supportive of her grandma coming here. After all, compet.i.tive events as such were unsuitable for the elderly.
But, there was someone who was even more worried than grandma—Zhang Shulin.
The reason why he took so long to appear was because he did not want to spread his nervousness over to s.h.i.+ Guang.
He was truly all jittery. If this final disciple of his could not even make it into the provincial team, where was he going to put his face in the future?
From the moment s.h.i.+ Guang entered the water, she had kept her lead at the 1st place consistently. Following that, she continued pulling her distance from the 2nd place swimmer rhythmically.
At the burst of the final 50m, Zhang Shulin’s hovering heart finally found a resting spot as he could not help but raise both of his gripped fists and howl out like a victorious wolf.
From the moment s.h.i.+ Guang entered the water, she blanked out her mind completely, such that her empty mind could not even think about what position she was in or whether her strokes were proper or not.
She was only focused on moving forward, and nothing more. Pus.h.i.+ng forward with her most comfortable stance, she thought of nothing else as she blazed forth with all her might.
The final 50m…
25m…
5m…
Finally, she felt her palms touch the walls of the pool!
The moment she emerged from the waters, she could hear the fervent cheers from the spectators.
“s.h.i.+ Guang, s.h.i.+ Guang…!”
“s.h.i.+ Guang, you’re the best!”
“s.h.i.+ Guang, we love you!”
Removing her goggles, she looked at the electronic scoreboard and then at her coach. Zhang Shulin’s arms were raised up high as he looked at her with two big thumbs ups.
The judges at the side were nodding their heads in approval as well, pleased with the performance of this year’s champion.
This was the best results that the provincial team had had in years for this event now.
With that, s.h.i.+ Guang finally heaved out a slight breath of relief.
There were a total of three groups for the freestyle event, and the five fastest timings would make it into the provincial team.
She was in the 1st group, with two other groups to follow. Who could tell whether or not there were going to be five more people in the next two groups who would have a better set of results than her?
When s.h.i.+ Guang came out after changing her clothes, she found that the final group of freestyle swimmers was underway.
To her surprise, everyone was looking at her with a somewhat weird glare.
Someone mumbled out within the crowd, “For the timing of the 1st place to rise that much, she must have definitely used stimulants!”