But Qin Hailong underestimated how thick faced Tang Yan could be. When Tang Yan got out of the shower, he received a call from Qin Hailong, who urged him to head back to training early. His answer was very short, he would be back soon but he had a few more records to break.
Qin Hailong was speechless and he didn"t know how to react, he could only remind him to return as early as possible.
Tang Yan hung up the phone and headed back to his hotel.
Because of Ning Xuantao, his physical exertion today was greater than expected and tomorrow there would be the 1500 meters freestyle, so he had to get recharged.
.....
The champions.h.i.+ps were a total of 7 days.
This was already the fourth match day, the champions.h.i.+ps were already halfway over.
1500 meters was the longest distance event of all the projects, neither the swimmers nor the audience enjoyed this project but after the Asian Games last year where Sun Yang broke the Asian record.
The project became Sun Yang"s exclusive event and was one of the few events on the world stage they had a great chance of winning gold.
What followed was naturally a higher level of attention on the event, which was even greater this time due to Tang Yan"s appearance.
Since swimming sub 48 seconds yesterday, Tang Yan"s every move touched the hearts of Chinese swimming fans.
However, it was regrettable that as his test trial results were average for the 1500m at the time and with the top long-distance swimmers in the country having come to partic.i.p.ate, Tang Yan failed to enter the top eight.
Due to the amount of swimmers they were seperated into the fast group and the slow group and not being in the top eight he fell into the slow group.
Tang Yan himself didn"t care. He only needed to exert his full strength, anyway the swimmers with the fastest time in the two groups would win the event.
The 1500-meters slow group final, which normally had basically no attention paid to it, now attracted many viewers.
Experiencing competing in front of such a large audience, the other swimmers emotions were high.
Although they knew the crowd was here for Tang Yan, this was still an opportunity so they were eager to perform to their best standard.
The focus of the audience was Tang Yan, who was already stretching by the sidelines.
1500m vs 800m was a different concept. He had to do a more extensive warm-up to avoid getting leg cramps like Sun Yang.
After finis.h.i.+ng all his preparations, under the directions of the referee, he and the other swimmers all went to the start platform.
"On your marks"
"Get set"
Buzz!
As the buzzer went off, the swimmers were off.
But because the distance was great, there wasn"t a mad dash right out of the gates.
Even Tang Yan didn"t rush forward like in the 800 meters. After all, he knew what his limit were, if he tried to replicate a similar performance here, he would become burnt out and be left behind by everyone.
However, although moving at a slower pace, Tang Yan made sure to maintain first place.
The first 200 meters were no shock Tang Yan always maintained the lead being ahead by half a body"s length.
However, after waiting 200 meters he sped up and the swimmer in second place tried to follow after him but there was a lack of success.
And unwilling to risk burning out trying to chase Tang Yan, he slowed down and returned to his previous pace.
After the race reached the 400m mark, all the crowd"s attention was on Tang Yan, who was continuously pulling away.
10 meters.
20 meters.
30 meters.
50 meters.
1 lap.
2 laps.
...
The distance continued to increase and in the end Tang Yan pa.s.sing the 1000 meters mark was already ahead of the rest of the group by 3 laps.
At this point this was no longer a compet.i.tion, he was owning this group.
The focus of the audience"s attention also changed from him being able to take first place in the slow group to calculating the gap between him and the other swimmers.
In the blink of an eye with only the last 200 meters left, Tang Yan started to sprint.
At this point his real opponent was himself.
He was constantly accelerating.
The audience watched the time on the display and began cheering for him.
Just for him alone.
His speed attracted the excitement of the on-site commentator.
"If he is a little faster, he will be able to catch up with the shadow line for the Asian record, the record maintained by Sun Yang!"
Tang Yan began his final sprint.
He was able to see the pool wall and accelerating with a strenuous kick, he reached to touch the wall.
Ding!
The referee rang the bell and marked the end.
Tang Yan squatted on to the buoy, panting hard.
The cheers of the audience at this time had become deafening and whistles sounded out across the scene.
Because at this time, the rest of the group still had more than four laps left...
After calming his breathing , he looked up at his time on the display.
14 minutes 35 seconds 31!
He broke the 1500-meters Asian record Sun Yang had just created at the Asian Games!
No wonder the audience was so excited!
After seeing this achievement, Tang Yan also laughed out full of excitement.
To be honest this result was an unexpected surprise.
However the costs were very obvious. His legs were a little weak from exhaustion, the final sprint had taken his all.
After taking a full rest in the pool for half a minute he slowly swam to sh.o.r.e.
The compet.i.tion between the other swimmers in the pool continued, but after they finished and came out the water, they received warm cheers and applause from the audience.
The reporters also came over in a flash, lugging their cameras whilst taking a swarm of photos.