Tang Yan smiled bitterly after seeing the match up but Luke Jackson on the other hand shouted excitedly.The other Australian boxers even stepped forward to congratulate him, posturing as if he had got the luckiest pick ever.
"They are overdoing it a bit now!" Zou s.h.i.+ming said in an annoyed tone, as the eldest brother of the boxing team, he couldn"t stand it.
"They should be excited." Tang Yan said with a smile at this time.
Zou s.h.i.+ming turned his head to look at Tang Yan for a moment, Zhang Zhilei had told him about the exchange with Jackson the day before. Tang Yan"s low-key nature was beyond his expectation. Did his whole character change after the swimming World Champions.h.i.+ps.
But Tang Yan"s next sentence made him laugh.
"It means he can sit out the compet.i.tion earlier and relax." Tang Yan said with a grin.
He didn"t mind Luke Jackson seeking revenge for his friends, but if he dared to look down on him, then he would definitely make him pay for it.
After the lottery ceremony finished, some were left happy and others sad.
Although there were no seeded boxers, the strength gap between the boxers was real. The simplest example was the first round. No one in the 49kg cla.s.s wanted to meet the defending champion Zou s.h.i.+ming.
The Chinese team"s luck wasn"t bad. Except for Tang Yan, they all had low-profile opponents.
As a result, in the first round, Tang Yan became the most likely boxer to be eliminated from the national team.
After the ceremony was over, his teammates came over to encourage him. Even Head Coach Qin Hailong asked him to chat in private.
This made him feel like crying and laughing.
The opening ceremony in the evening was very characteristic of Azerbaijani culture, the Eurasian experience was quite new for the contestants.
After the opening ceremony ended, the 16th AIBA World Boxing Champions.h.i.+ps officially began.
....
According to the schedule, the World Champions.h.i.+ps would be held for a total of 12 days, 8 days of qualifiers plus 3 days of knockouts with one day of rest in the middle.
The preliminaries were sorted according to weight category. The first day of the preliminaries included the 49kg, 52kg, 56kg and 63kg cla.s.ses. Tang Yan was the final match of the 63kg preliminaries.
The first match of the World Champions.h.i.+ps and the 49kg cla.s.s, for the Chinese boxing team was the defending champion, Zou s.h.i.+ming.
Although Zou s.h.i.+ming was 30 years old, a bit old for a boxer, he was still in top form. In the first round, he faced the Russian boxer David Ayrapetyan who he defeated 20 to 4 on points. Showing the disparity in levels, he easily advanced to the next round.
After Zou s.h.i.+ming, Zhang Xiaoping also successfully defeated his opponent to advance to the second round before the lunch break.
With the end of the morning matches, the stadium went into it"s first break.
The boxers who were going to fight in the afternoon also came to the field in advance to warm up.
And the journalists certainly didn"t miss the opportunity, seizing the boxer"s spare training time to try to get an interview.
Luke Jackson and his teammates had just finished the first round of training when they were caught by a local Azerbaijani reporter.
"h.e.l.lo, Luke, I"m Sabina Akayev of ATV. Do you have time for an interview with me?" Asked a female reporter.
"I have time, a lot of time." Jackson said with a discerning look.
"Thank you very much." After smiling and thanking him, the interview began.
"We know that your opponent in the next round is a boxer from the Chinese team, Tang Yan. Besides being a renowned boxer, he is also an excellent swimmer having just recently competed in the World Aquatics Champions.h.i.+ps and won multiple events. Even defeating some prominent swimmers from the Australian team."
"How are you feeling going into the fight?"
Listening to Sabina talking about Tang Yan"s ident.i.ty as a swimmer, Jackson frowned at first, then smiled, with strong disdain in his words: "You say he"s a good swimmer, I admit he is indeed somewhat talented but mainly lucky, especially to get away with such unfair results.... "
Jackson said, seeing Sabina"s surprised expression, he knew he had gone a little too far so he quickly switched topics, but the disdain in his tone was unchanged: "As for him being a renowned boxer we can evaluate that after I beat him."
"You mean, you don"t consider Tang Yan your opponent?" Sabina asked, dazed.
"Was he ever."
After Jackson finished speaking, Sabina was shocked and even a little dumbfounded. She didn"t expect that the Australian boxer would have such self-confidence.
"Is that all for the interview?" Jackson suddenly said.
"Uhh yes, that"ll be enough. Thank you" Sabina nodded, trying to maintain the demeanor of a reporter.
"Then beautiful lady, are you free tonight? If you don"t mind, I would love to invite you to dinner." Jackson said in a low voice.
When Sabina heard this, her face turned red.
"Sorry but I can"t." Sabina replied and immediately left with the camera man.
Seeing her leaving, Jackson froze for a moment, then said "boring" and shook his head before returning to chat with his teammates.
After leaving the training area of the Australian team, Sabina followed the signs and arrived at the Chinese team"s area.
After Tang Yan"s performance at the swimming World Champions.h.i.+ps, his popularity was soaring rapidly. Naturally, Sabina didn"t want to miss such an opportunity, and immediately walked over.
Tang Yan was standing to the side drinking water after training when he saw a female reporter approaching him.
Seeing Sabina, Tang Yan smiled and placed his bottle down waiting for her to approach.
"h.e.l.lo, I am..." Sabina came up with a brief introduction and then made a request for an interview.
"Sure, I"m down for an interview." Tang Yan said with a polite smile.
Hearing Tang Yan"s answer, Sabina immediately showed a smile.