Seeing Tang Yan"s performance so far, anyone who had doubts about him before had now begun to realize how strong of an archer he was. He had gone from a n.o.body to the favourite to win the event.In the semi finals, Tang Yan"s opponent was Li Cunde from his preliminaries. The latter had eliminated Li Tao from Taizhou in the quarter finals with a near perfect score of 118 points.
As a member of Yuhang City, when he had lost in the preliminaries, Xiao Yan had criticized him all noon, so he was eager to make his comeback and make a name for himself by winning this event.
However, in this kind of compet.i.tion, whether you looked at in terms of strength or in terms of accuracy, Tang Yan had the absolute advantage at this distance. Coupled with his powerful soul which made his mental state increasingly stable, it was difficult to defeat him.
And this round of confrontation between Li Cunde and Tang Yan proved so.
Sadly, sometimes effort didn"t necessarily lead to success.
Li Cunde"s archery was quite stable. The first nine arrows were all 10 pointers, but just like in the preliminaries, he choked from the pressure in the last round and his last two arrows fell short. Both were 9 pointers, making his final score 118 points.
"This Li Cunde is still lacking. His skills are there, but his mental fort.i.tude is lacking, and his ability to withstand pressure is a little weak. But with a few more years of experience, he will become a formidable force to be reckoned with. He has the potential to reach the international stage," commented a judge.
"They are all teenagers; their weak mental state is to be expected. In fact, even among the older archers, how many could truly stay unfl.u.s.tered against an opponent like Tang Yan? Though his flair for dramatics is a bit over the top, it is highly effective. Who wouldn"t feel pressured seeing their opponent shooting continuous arrows like it"s nothing?" said another judge with a smile.
....
After defeating Li Cunde, Tang Yan had successfully entered the finals of the 50-meter trial.
His opponent in the finals was Zhou Ning, the only other person to shoot a perfect game in the preliminaries.
Unlike Tang Yan who showed absolute dominance over all his opponents, Zhou Ning had taken a more casual approach in an attempt to retain his strength for the finals. He consistently played one level above his opponents; he eliminated his opponents with scores of 116 and 119 points respectively and broke into the finals.
This was the first time in the individual events that a non-Yuhang City athlete had made it into the finals.
For Yuhang City, this was a challenge. If they lost, it would break their unbeaten streak and set a precedent. And for Xiao Yan, the head coach of Yuhang City, this was unacceptable.
During the break before the final, both archers began to prepare.
When both sides were checking their bows, Zhou Ning suddenly turned to Tang Yan and said:
"Your performance has been good so far, but sadly it comes to an end here."
The archers of Yuhang City were all quite prideful.
It was naturally for this kind of thing to occur; after all, they had always been in a dominant position over the other cities.
Although talented figures had appeared from time to time from the other cities, it had never been enough to shake their position as the leaders of the province.
Accustomed to winning; naturally pride and arrogance were bred.
Zhou Ning in particular was one of the worst ones, having begun learning archery from the age of six, he had become famous in Yuhang City for his skills at the age of 11. Although he was only 16 years old, he was already a key member of the team. The reason why he chose to partic.i.p.ate in the 50-meter event was so he could show off his skills more and make a bigger name for himself.
Tang Yan smiled but didn"t respond. He couldn"t find it in himself to bother with a comeback. Who cared what a 16-year-old said? He might have regressed back to the past, but his mental age was still that of a 30-year-old.
Zhou Ning, seeing that Tang Yan didn"t respond, snorted, took his equipment arrow and went to the compet.i.tion area to warm up.
After waiting a few minutes, with the two archers having warmed up, the 50-meter finals finally kicked off.
Tang Yan was first to shoot.
Like before, he shot all three arrows continuously, and all were ten pointers.
Zhou Ning, however, didn"t show much reaction and went up for his turn; though not as rapidly as Tang Yan, he also shot three arrows continuously all of which were ten pointers.
It could be seen that although he was arrogant, he had the qualifications to be.
After shooting, Zhou Ning shot Tang Yan a provocative sneer, but found that the latter was completely ignoring him, as he walked up to the shooting gallery.
Seeing this, Zhou Ning gritted his teeth.
The two were continuously alternating and shooting, and the audience on the sidelines were anxious and excited.
Even many judges in the stands found their palms sweaty from watching in anxiety.
Everyone was tense, well. nearly everyone. Li Lao was watching with glee, excitedly laughing after each shot.
As the provincial teams head coach, his considerations were obviously different from others.
In addition to the Asian Games in November, there was also the Youth Olympics in August. The athletes in the Youth Olympics were required to be between 14 to 18 years old. Most of the provincial team were too old to compete; as such, their goals were to compete in the Asian Games, so he had to find talented young archers who could.
Therefore, seeing such a top-level final for the 50m event, left him thrilled.
The three rounds were over, and both the judges and the audience were left stunned.
120 points!
Both of them had shot a perfect game.
The audience was astounded!
The umpire recovering from his shock called out for overtime.
The finals had been pushed to overtime!
There was a minute of rest time before overtime began. While resting on the sidelines, Zhou Ning couldn"t help but turn his head and say to Tang Yan,
"Your luck has been good today, but..."
"It ends here, yeah I know. You really are cliche," interrupted Tang Yan with a smile.
"You...." Zhou Ning was stunned and turned around and stopped speaking.
Tang Yan shrugged indifferently. This Zhou Ning was obviously trying to use words to interfere with his mental state; but naturally he wouldn"t be so easily shaken.
As the first round of overtime began, the two were still evenly matched. The tension and pressure in the air increased after each arrow.
However, in the third round of overtime, the deadlock was finally broken.
Li Guang"s abilities not only increased Tang Yan"s skills but also his physique. Also due to his age, he was more physically able. But Zhou Ning didn"t have this advantage, he was just a teenager;, although he had gone through systematic training, as the game went on, it was clear to see he was beginning to fatigue. He began to take longer for each shot, and his strength began to wane. His endurance was starting to fail him.
On his last arrow of the third round, Zhou Ning"s arms gave way slightly, causing him to release the bowstring prematurely.
Tw.a.n.g!
Boom!
The arrow flew through the air and hit the target board, but it was off course.
"Zhou Ning, 8 points."
Hearing this, the crowd broke out into pandemonium.
It was all over.
Tang Yan had won. He was the first non-Yuhang City athletes to win the event since the provincial archery selection was held!
The scene burst to life.
Shao Ping jumped out of his judge"s seat and punched the air in celebration. Next to him, Sun Yan openly congratulated him with a wry smile.
Just as the referee was about to announce his victory, he found himself in a white void again, looking at the system administrator, Celia.
"Congratulations, master. You have won your first major event. You are one step closer to conquering the sports world, and with this victory, you have gained 1 honor point. Remember, honor points can be used to improve abilities or to unlock new characters."