Chapter Ninety: The Capital Station Match

The indoor track and field invitational had been organized by the national sports authority. Because commercial operations for domestic athletics events had not yet found much success, no sponsor had been secured, and the whole affair was running at a loss.

The purpose of holding the meet was to stir up the atmosphere of competition in domestic sports and give home athletes events in which to compete. After all, not every athlete could go abroad and show his mettle on the international stage.

This competition had also received the approval of World Athletics and would be treated as a level-three World Athletics meet. The winner would earn World Athletics ranking points, though not many, of course.

By now, the entry lists submitted by the various provinces had taken a roundabout route and finally reached the national sprint team.

In general, a national team coaching staff was assembled on a temporary basis when preparing for certain international competitions. But the contract signed this time between the sports authority and Li Yan was a reform of that rule, an experiment.

Since the national sprint team’s coaching staff had become a permanent fixture, Li Yan had the right to pull athletes from the provinces for centralized training. The immediate goal was the 2005 World Championships, the medium-term goal the 2006 Asian Games, and the long-term goal the 2008 Olympics.

The indoor invitational had not initially drawn much attention from Li Yan. Only athletes such as Zhang Zhen, who specialized in the indoor 60-meter event, had signed up. But after seeing the list, he raised the matter with Dong Zijian.

“Can we forbid Rousseau from taking part in this meet?”

Dong Zijian was somewhat baffled by the question. It was not a matter of whether they could, but why they should.

“Before I signed the contract, the representatives from the sports authority said they were in charge of every sprinter in this country. Then they should have the right to ban Rousseau from any domestic competition, shouldn’t they?” Li Yan said again.

“Coach Li, you may be very fluent in our country’s idioms, but you don’t understand our sports system. The sports authority does oversee all sporting events and all athletes in this country, but we also have provincial teams and city teams. We don’t have direct authority over them, though they generally do follow the authority’s lead,” Dong Zijian said.

Li Yan frowned. This was clearly not what he had imagined.

“So can we ban Rousseau from competing or not?” he asked.

“In theory, yes. In practice, no,” Dong Zijian said.

“I don’t understand.” Li Yan was thoroughly confused.

“Unless the athlete has committed a serious disciplinary violation, we have no excuse to keep him from competing,” Dong Zijian said. “Why do you want to do this?”

“I need to force him back to the national team. If he has no competitions to run, he’ll come back,” Li Yan said. “He still has plenty of room to improve in the 200 meters. I believe he has world-class ability.”

Or rather, you’re worried about your own contract, aren’t you... Dong Zijian let out a sigh. If only he had known, why act this way in the first place?

If Rousseau, who was unwilling to heed the national team’s call-up, could show the same domestic dominance in the 100 meters as he did in the 200, then Li Yan, as head coach, would be in a rather awkward position.

"The Wanderer Begins from Douluo"

...

November 29.

Rousseau, Tian Shiwei, Lu Jinrong, and Ruan Mei, who had been on the same flight as they were, arrived together in the capital.

“It’s so cold.”

Ruan Mei drew her coat tighter as she looked out at the gray sky beyond the airport.

It was also Rousseau’s first time coming to a northern city in this season, and he felt a sweeping chill in the air.

This time, no one had come to meet them.

The four of them took a taxi together to a hotel near the sports university.

The capital stop of the meet was being hosted by the National Sports University, and the hotel for the successfully registered athletes and coaches had been arranged uniformly by the sports authority. So Rousseau was not at all surprised to see Dong Zijian here.

“Coach Dong, long time no see,” Rousseau greeted him.

“Yes, you seem to have bulked up a bit again,” Dong Zijian said, patting Rousseau on the shoulder.

“Maybe it’s just the extra layers. We southerners aren’t used to the cold,” Rousseau said. “The capital really is cold.”

Besides that, Rousseau’s current “strength” and “agility” had both reached 42 out of 42. After the university games on the 20th, in order to raise both attributes to full before the indoor invitational, he had even worn the Glass Crown for a stretch to train.

“Let’s talk over there,” Dong Zijian said.

Rousseau said a word to Lu Jinrong, then greeted Ruan Mei as well.

“I’ll come find you in your room a little later,” Ruan Mei said to him.

Mm. Rousseau nodded.

After watching Ruan Mei walk off, Dong Zijian praised her. “Your girlfriend is beautiful.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s the brand manager for a sponsor. My shoes were custom-made by them, and she came to take photos for publicity,” Rousseau explained.

“Oh? An athletic brand is already custom-making shoes for you? Impressive,” Dong Zijian could not help but exclaim. In domestic athletics, only one or two people enjoyed that kind of treatment. Rousseau... well, Rousseau was indeed the rightful number one in the country in the 200 meters.

With that kind of treatment, it was no surprise.

“It’s a brand that only just started up, not some big name, so they asked me to endorse it,” Rousseau explained again. That was also why he had accepted the 150,000 endorsement fee to represent Levan. Levan’s shoes were indeed very good.

“That’s still remarkable. Oh, right, this is for you.” Dong Zijian slid a bank card across the table to Rousseau. “This is the sports authority’s bonus for the East Asian Games championship. Not much, just 50,000 yuan. Last time you didn’t come back to the capital with the team, so I collected it for you first. Write me a receipt later.”

Since it was a bonus issued by the sports authority, Rousseau accepted it without ceremony.

50,000 yuan was not a huge sum, but neither was it small.

“Coach Li still hopes you’ll return to the national team.” Seeing Rousseau take the money, Dong Zijian spoke up.

“Unless Li Yan is no longer the head coach of the national team,” Rousseau said. “I’ve already made my position clear.”

“Rousseau...” Dong Zijian clearly had quite a few arguments prepared.

“Coach Dong, I’ve already run 10.34 in the 100 meters,” Rousseau said suddenly. “I measured it before coming to the capital.”

“What?” Dong Zijian froze. A 10.34 in the 100 meters was an elite domestic time. The current number one in the country, Pan Kai, was only around 10.30.

“But my best in the 60 is only 6.69 seconds. I think my start still has problems. If you have time, give me some advice,” Rousseau said.

“Mm... all right.” Dong Zijian nodded, still unable to believe it. After thinking for a moment, he asked again, “Rousseau, can you really run 10.34 in the 100 meters?”

“I can run 10.34 now. In another month, at the National Games, I’m confident I can attack 10.20,” Rousseau said. “Next year I want to break 10.10. Otherwise, how could I stand on the Golden League stage and compete with the world’s most famous sprinters?”

Yes, that was true. Who would not want to step onto the world stage? But was it really something one could simply step onto whenever one wished? Dong Zijian’s thoughts churned. Even after Rousseau left, he still found it hard to believe.

Still, a look at tomorrow’s race would tell the story. Though it was not the 100 meters, if Rousseau could run 6.70 in the 60, then his 100-meter performance must have improved greatly from before.