November 22, Aoti Archery Range.Because it was the weekend, almost all the stands were filled. Although archery wasn"t a popular sport, but its viewers.h.i.+p rate soared coupled with the birth of Tang Yan, the popularity of the sport was soaring in an incredible way. The audience arrived early to watch the finals of the team compet.i.tion.
However, things took a turn. Smog filled the sky.
The word smog, became more widely known in China, in 2013, when there was severe air pollution that affected East China, including all or most parts of the munic.i.p.alities of Shanghai and Tianjin, the provinces of Jiangsu, Henan, and Zhejiang.
The lack of cold air flow, combined with the slow-moving air ma.s.s carrying industrial emissions, collected airborne pollutants to form a thick layer of smog over the region.
It was one of the worst bouts of air pollution in the area, cutting visibility and causing major disruption in transportation and daily activities. Airports, highways, and schools were closed.
Before this, China didn"t pay much attention to the effects of smog.
Smog was a demonstration of just how polluted cities were becoming, even in London smog was a frequent guest from the beginning of the industrial revolution, it had lasted for more than 200 years, for China, it became a more prevalent issue since the beginning of 2003.
As one of the most developed cities, Guangzhou was suffering from more and more air pollution.
Originally, since there was the Asian Games, such a large-scale event, the government tried to carry out traffic control in the city, but despite their efforts to reduce day to day pollution it seemed to have little affect.
Smog filled the air, greatly reducing visibility.
This sudden situation caught the organizing committee unprepared, because the stadium was open-air, they were even preparing to change venues.
However, this kind of thing was very difficult to implement. Foremost, there was not enough spare venues, second of all, the audience was almost all here, such a transfer would be a big issue.
As a last resort, the finals of the team compet.i.tion, which was scheduled to be held at 9:00 am, was to be temporarily postponed.
As time went by, the psychological pressure on the archers mounted up.
But there was good news after about an hour of delay, the smog finally showed signs of clearing or at least thinning out.
After the visibility reached an adequate enough level, so they could push ahead the organizing committee announced the start of the finals.
After such an episode there was a kind of hustle and bustle about the scene as everyone geared up for the long-awaited start.
When archers from both sides walked into the arena, the audience was ecstatic, the previous wait became worthwhile.
The audience was excited, but the archers were more dignified, the low visibility environment wasn"t exactly the best conditions for an archery compet.i.tion.
But as athletes, they could only try to overcome it.
The performance of the Chinese team, especially Tang Yan, had caused the South Korean team to pay attention and naturally the Chinese team didn"t dare to be careless about the South Korean team.
It was an anxious wait to hear the order of appearances from both sides.
On the Korean team, Kw.a.n.g-seok took the lead with Park Ji-hyun second, while their core Im Dong-hyun was the last to appear.
On the Chinese side, Qiu Tian took the lead, Ning Ze was in the middle with Tang Yan at the tail.
There wasn"t too much surprise at such a formation.
Whilst Tang Yan and his teammates warmed up they could clearly sense the intense atmosphere around the venue.
For the South Korean team this intensity was much stronger, they had more to lose as the defending champions.
With the Chinese team"s victory at the Youth Olympics and Tang Yan"s performance so far a lot of doubt was being cast on their generation.
South Korea had a heritage as archery champions and as doubt grew and discussions began many blamed this generation of archers.
They labeled them as weaker compared to the former years. So they had a lot to fight for.
"Archers, at the ready."
After a brief warm-up, the referee quickly called the archers from both sides.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
Qiu Tian and Kw.a.n.g-seok went up to the gallery with their recurve bows.
Both of them were young archers. Before the set, there was no verbal confrontation, they just walked up in silence. Each in their own minds, calming themselves.
Qiu Tian"s 2 arrows shot for a result of 17 points, Kw.a.n.g-seok shot for 18 points.
After the two, Ning Ze and Park Ji Hyun were next. Compared with the previous two, they interacted talking on the way up to shoot. With both of them trying to disturb their opponents mental state.
After the two arrived at the gallery, the confrontation began with both sides deliberately drawing out their time to shoot. Trying to throw the other off their game.
In the end, Ning Ze"s 2 arrows were 18 points and Park Ji Hyun shot for 18 points as well.
Kw.a.n.g-seok and Park Ji Hyun were both true archers of the Korean national team. In a normal match, their set scores would be basically stable between 19 to 20 points.
But today, neither of them managed to shoot up to par due to the impact of the bad visibility.
Up next was, Tang Yan and Im dong-hyun.
Tang Yan took up his recurve bow and went to the gallery. Walking up neither cast any provocations, just slightly flas.h.i.+ng the other a small smile.
Because in the qualifiers the South Korean team finished first, Im dong-hyun was first to shoot.
He took up his recurve bow and looking at the distant target, he took a deep breath. His body leaned forward slightly. After completing a series of preparations, he took out an arrow.
His eyes are full of confidence.
He had reason to be confident.
He had already achieved a lot of dazzling achievements. Even an Olympic gold medal, which was the crowning jewel for most athletes had already been bagged by him in 2008.
However the reality since then was that his vision was now on the decline.
In the beginning, like everyone else, he thought that his career would come to an end after such a peak, but he was unreconciled so he insisted on training even if he couldn"t see the target like ordinary people, he would adapt in his own way in order to continue.
Currently his vision wasn"t as bad as it would be in the future years but it had fallen by a huge margin from where it was in 2008.
Originally this was his great disadvantage, but in this harsh condition, it became a big advantage for him.
While other archers were reliant on their sight, he taught himself how to shoot without being dependant on it.
He nocked the arrow and pulled the bowstring back to its upper limit. Looking at the hazy target in the distance, relying on muscle memory, he aimed at the target. After small adjustments, he fired.
Tw.a.n.g!
The arrow made a burst of sound and through a layer of smog on a parabola in the air flew towards the target.
Boom!
One arrow straight to the middle of the bullseye.
10 points.
The Korean team smiled in excitement and the Korean fans in the stands cheered.
Im dong-hyun"s second arrow was still very slow, and like the first arrow, it flew straight to the center of the target.
After the end of his turn, he nodded in Tang Yan"s direction.
And just like that all the gazes fell onto Tang Yan, filled with concern.
Although Tang Yan"s previous performance was amazing enough, in this smoggy weather, coupled with the outstanding performance of Im dong-hyun, they were anxious to see how he would reply.