47 seconds 48!"Incredible, truly incredible. Such talent no wonder the Australian"s are jealous" said the commentator losing himself in excitement.
"Tang Yan is an unprecedented genius in the history of Chinese swimming. No, he can be said to be an unprecedented genius in Chinese sports." Lin Li said with a wide grin, s.h.i.+fting focus.
"Yeah, I think the audience must be like me. They are all looking forward to Tang Yan"s performance in the rest of his events. I believe he will surprise us again!" The commentator responded quickly and changed the topic.
In the pool, Magnussen touched the wall for second place. His final time was 47 seconds 81, which was 0.3 seconds slower than Tang Yan.
After touching the wall, he turned to look at Tang Yan, seeing Tang Yan beaming and overjoyed, forcefully he said nothing and turned his head away.
"Your speed right at the end was amazing. You truly deserve gold." The Canadian swimmer Brent Hayden touched the wall for third place. He saw Tang Yan"s achievement and congratulated him sincerely. Despite being compet.i.tors, he was impressed by Tang Yan"s burst of speed.
"Thank you, congratulations on bronze." Tang Yan replied in fluent English, causing Hayden to be surprised again.
The other players touched the wall one after another, and the final rankings were settled.
This 100m freestyle compet.i.tion was the most eye-catching in the recent World Champions.h.i.+ps. The favourites such as Cielo, Meynard and Adrian all missed out on medals. Tang Yan, Magnussen and Hayden could all be described as dark horses.
After Tang Yan and Hayden climbed up from the pool, they immediately received applause and cheers from everyone at the scene.
No matter whether it was the Asian Games 49kg event or winning double gold in archery, compared with the current World Champions.h.i.+p they fell a tier below.
Tang Yan reached out and waved to the audience. He was excited and enjoying the moment. With the power of Zhang Shun and his own hard work, this champions.h.i.+p was beginning to go his way.
The audience on site was cheering and they didn"t calm down for a long time. Online, the website crashed due to too much traffic. The major sports websites and media stations launched into praise of Tang Yan.
In this moment, nothing was more interesting and exciting than this.
When returning to the locker room, Tang Yan was madly celebrated by his teammates, and the roaring cheers carried on in the locker room.
"The next time Tang Yan races we must prepare champagne, we have to spray him!" Fu Yuanhui exclaimed, as the women"s team members come over and joined in the celebrations.
Before he knew it, Tang Yan was lost in a mosh pit of shouting and selfies.
He was pulled over everywhere and made to do various poses.
After trying to escape futilely Tang Yan soon gave up resistance as he became a mascot for the women"s team as they took hundreds of photos.
Soon a staff member came in to remind Tang Yan to head out for the award ceremony, he desperately escaped.
"d.a.m.n he got away, I only got two good photos" Fu Yuanhui said flickering through her alb.u.m.
"We"ll get him after the award ceremony, the lighting in here sucks."
...
When he was out of the locker room, he breathed a sigh of relief.
The award ceremony of the 100-meter freestyle event was set up quick.
The audience at the scene still didn"t give the Australians face. When Hayden came on stage, there were scattered cheers. But when Magnussen appeared it was accompanied by boos and whistles, the Australian was blus.h.i.+ng and helpless. He already lost the race, why were they still targeting him.
When Tang Yan went up to the top of the podium, the FINA President Julio Maglione placed the gold medal around his neck and the entire Shanghai Sports Center completely boiling, launched into a sea of cheering.
This was definitely a milestone for Chinese swimming and even Asian swimming history.
"Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!..."
With the high singing voice, the five-star red flag rose in the stadium for the third day in a row.
Holding a gold medal in his hand, Tang Yan looked intently at the five-star red flag.
After the award ceremony, Tang Yan had just stepped off the podium, when he was instantly surrounded by reporters. He became the first Asian swimmer in history to win gold in the 100-meter freestyle at the World Champions.h.i.+ps. They sure as h.e.l.l wouldn"t let him escape.
"Tang Yan, can you share with us your emotions right now after your victory?" A CCTV reporter grabbed the lead and launched off his question.
"Well, I"m very excited. I want to thank Song Xiaocheng and Coach Shen Qing, as well as the staff and teammates of the national swimming team. Thank you to all my fans and my family. It is their constant support and training that gave me the opportunity to win this medal."
Tang Yan was very official when he answered their questions. He had gotten some standard responses to learn from Zhuang Jiajie. According to the latter"s words, he was now becoming more and more famous and needed to create a positive image, not answering so offhand and casually like before.
"We all know the previous remarks of the Australian swimming team. What"s your opinion on their remarks and any words for them after such a thrilling victory?" When he gained another opportunitunity the CCTV reporter came in again, this time from a rather difficult angle, and the second question went straight to the topic.
The other reporters instantly stopped shouting their questions and pointed their microphones at Tang Yan
"There"s nothing to say really."
"Drug testing is the most standardized procedure in swimming compet.i.tions and there is always a FINA commissioner supervising them. To doubt this is not only to doubt the organizing committee, but also to question the ability of FINA. Their words could potentially be misconstrued as defamation and slander.
If I remember correctly, in China, defamation is subject to legal liability so care should be taken by all parties."