Chapter 193: I Want to Be Stronger (2/2)

”Mom, don't worry about me, I have enough clothes; I won't catch a cold,” Dai Li said, looking up in the sky. A bright moon was hanging there, but there were no stars.

Dai Li suddenly missed old times, when he had seen starry nights quite often. Now he could only see one or two stars twinkling in the dark at night.

Dai Li looked into the distance again. Even though it was night time, there was still someone on the track.

Who practices so late at night? After ending the conversation with his parents, Dai Li zoomed in on the person using his phone's camera.

It looks like Guohong Niu! Didn't he get enough practice during the daytime? Dai Li thought for a second, then decided to take a look himself.

Dai Li took two bottles of sports drink and walked onto the training field. Seeing that it was indeed Guohong Niu who was focused on training, he immediately walked towards him.

”Guohong Niu, why are you giving yourself extra work so late at night?” Dai Li shouted at Guohong Niu.

Guohong Niu stopped immediately once he recognized Dai Li. He looked at Li embarrassingly. Dai Li threw a bottle of sports drink to Guohong Niu, then pointed at the open space on the side of tracks. The two sat down on the ground.

”Why are you still practicing? When you were in Tsinghua University, you were not this active,” Dai Li scoffed at Guohong Niu.

Guohong Niu gulped the drink down, then said, ”Coach, I want to be stronger!”

”Stronger?” Dai Li looked at Guohong Niu: ”Everybody here feels that they are not strong enough; everyone wants to be stronger.”

Guohong Niu took a deep breath. He replied, ”I always thought that I was pretty good. In Tsinghua, universities in Huajing City, or even among colleges around the country, I was always the best. But once I got to the national team, I finally realized that there are so many people better than me. A lot of athletes are younger than me, yet still perform better than me!”

Dai Li knew that Guohong Niu was having an identity crisis.

People who were able to attend Tsinghua University were one-in-a-million, and Guohong Niu had been at the top, which meant that he was on the best of the best. It was no wonder he had so much confidence.

But there was a gap between college athletes and professionals. Take a complex sport like basketball, for example; when playing against professionals, the ”national number one” player from a university was undoubtedly not as good as someone in a professional league.

Sports like sprinting did not contain much cooperation and tactics; almost all events required individual work. Therefore, the gap between college and professional athletes was smaller. Guohong Niu, the top athlete in university, would probably become a great professional. But he needed sufficient time and work to develop in order to shorten the gap.

Honestly, Guohong Niu's performance was not bad; he was above average on the national team. But compared to the top-level athletes, he still had a long way to go.

Considering these factors, Dai Li comforted Guohong Niu. ”This is normal. You are on the national team, where the best athletes in the country gather together. A large number of them began training at seven or eight years old, then went to sports schools as teenagers, and have received professional training since then. Compared to them, your training time is way less.”

Dai Li patted Guohong Niu's shoulder and said, ”Don't put too much pressure on yourself. You are great! What you need is time; once you put sufficient time into your training, you will become a top-level athlete in this country.”

”But Sijie Yang joined in the team with me. His best time during training reached B-level qualifying standards for the Olympics. My time is still only around 10.40 seconds. I'm falling behind.”

For the 100m sprint, B-level qualifying standard for the Olympics was 10.28 seconds. This indicated that since arriving here, a 0.1-second gap had been created between Sijie Yang and Guohong Niu.

”Sijie Yang is younger than me, and he was not as good as I was; yet in only six months he has outperformed me,” Guohong Niu said, clenching his fists. ”Coach, can you help me improve? I want to be stronger!”