Chapter 526: He's Back

Chapter 526: He Has Returned

On April Fool's Day, Meng Fan came back!

This return, strictly speaking, was for Meng Fan's sports fans—he once again appeared in the news as an athlete.

Around 7:30 PM, CCTV-5 Sports News official microblog: "[Here he comes, here he comes, that man is back again!] In the just-concluded men's javelin final of the #1202 Asian Athletics Grand Prix# first stop in Hangzhou, Chinese athlete Meng Fan won the championship with a throw of 92.29 meters, breaking both the national and Asian records! Previously, Meng Fan had thrown 90.31 meters at a school sports meet, which already exceeded the Asian record, but it couldn't be certified due to the meet's level. Now it's locked in! Let's give a thumbs up to Chinese Meng! (Video attached below)"

As soon as this news came out, relevant official microblogs forwarded and reposted it, and soon it became a trending topic.

The Asian Athletics Grand Prix is the highest-level track and field event in Asia, with three stops each year. This year's first stop was held in Hangzhou, China, at the main stadium of the Olympic Sports Expo Center. For this venue, the event was one of a series of warm-up competitions before next year's Asian Games.

The Grand Prix featured a total of 17 events—9 for men and 8 for women—including throwing events like javelin and shot put. In theory, participants were athletes ranked in the top 16 in Asia for their events, similar to other Grand Prix series, such as the World Judo Grand Prix, where the top 16 in each weight class under the International Judo Federation compete.

As for Meng Fan, he was a "wild card" entry from the event organizer. Of course, wild card entries weren't open to just anyone; they required meeting certain performance standards. For instance, Chu Tianguo's results from the school sports meet couldn't count as valid, so before this, he participated in a national team training match, which barely qualified as a valid performance.

The number of participants in the men's javelin final was small; not all of the top 16 in the event competed, in fact, less than half. However, the number of participants had little to do with whether Meng Fan would win. Once his first throw came in at 90.09 meters, the championship was essentially secured, and he had already broken the previous Asian and national record of 89.15 meters, becoming the first Asian athlete to throw over 90 meters.

Even at the International Association of Athletics Federations Grand Prix, this result would likely secure a win.

"It's settled, settled, settled!"

The commentator in the video shouted excitedly as the javelin soared through the air, and after it landed, exclaimed: "Third throw, once again over 90 meters! Iron God's performance is so steady! Before the result comes out, let's replay... Look at this movement, so grand and... fluid, and look at this arm—it reminds me of an idiom, 'wasp waist and ape arm'!"

Another commentator chimed in: "Speaking of that, I recall Sima Qian's 'Records of the Grand Historian' describing General Li Guang, the Flying General: 'Li Guang had long arms like an ape, and his skill in archery was innate.' This description fits Meng Fan perfectly! Truly, ape-armed and skilled in throwing—the result is out: 91.19 meters! Another improvement, a brand-new national record, Asian record! Iron God is indeed pushing the limits every moment!"

After watching the video, comments flooded in.

"Iron God is awesome! (Voice cracks)"

"Ape-armed and skilled in throwing? No proof, but I'm sure the commentator was making a dirty joke!"

"Haha, after the school sports meet last year, I had a feeling Iron God would set his sights on throwing events, and sure enough!"

"Wow, with that kind of strength, can you really be so reckless?!"

"I'm just curious—how strong is Iron God?"

"Check out the SUV, anyone?"

"Did you notice Iron God's three throw results? First throw 90.09, second 91.19, third 92.29! I swear that's no coincidence!"

"Haha, Iron God's javelin must have been coached by that guy who doesn't understand ball games! Symmetry OCD!"

"Table tennis scores are easy to control, but javelin results? Is Meng Fan some kind of god?"

"You've hit the nail on the head—if China had a title like 'God of Sports,' it would have to go to Iron God!"

"After the three major events of weightlifting, wrestling, and judo, congratulations to Iron God for adding another exhibition sport!"

"Weren't a lot of people cursing Iron Fan for not sticking to weightlifting, wrestling, and judo and messing around in the entertainment industry? Come on, come on, come curse—he's at it again!"

"Stop it! For Iron God, everything is entertainment!"

"So, if I say 'blossoming in both arts and sports,' would anyone still give a thumbs up?"

Soon after the topic of Meng Fan winning the Asian Athletics Grand Prix javelin title and breaking the Asian record became hot, CCTV-5 Sports News official microblog posted the latest event results:

"[Here he comes, here he comes, that man is here again!] Latest news: After winning the javelin event and breaking the Asian record at the #1202# Asian Athletics Grand Prix, Chinese athlete Meng Fan immediately participated in the men's shot put final starting ten minutes later, and once again won the championship, breaking the national and Asian records with a throw of 22.66 meters—the best result in any shot put competition worldwide in the past decade! Awesome, my Chinese Meng! Stay tuned for the award ceremonies for both events. (Video attached below)"

With this result, two more trending topics quickly emerged.

#MengFanShotPutChampionBreaksRecord#

#MengFanDoubleRecordsDoubleChampions#

"Besides shouting 'Iron God is awesome,' I don't know what else to say!"

"Haha, you can also shout 'Meng Fan is awesome'!"

"Get used to it!"

"Since everyone has nothing left to say, why not let this topic sink?"

"Sink it, sink it!"

"Shh, everyone, stop talking!"

"Shh!"

"Shh!"

"Shh!"

Netizens entering the topic area might wonder what's going on here!

The coaches and higher-ups at the Weightlifting, Wrestling, and Judo Center cheered for Meng Fan's championship and record-breaking, then fell into a tacit gloom—because the track and field center's throwing event people had arrived.

The throwing event people came to negotiate Meng Fan's training schedule, but the Weightlifting, Wrestling, and Judo Center just scoffed—we can't even nail down Meng Fan's training time ourselves, so how can we help you? Go find Meng Fan yourself!

In the end, the throwing event department only got the schedule that the Weightlifting, Wrestling, and Judo Center had arranged for Meng Fan. Actually, that was all they came for—they had no hope of getting training time, only hoping to squeeze in some competitions for Meng Fan around this schedule.

After the Asian Athletics Grand Prix ended on April 1, Chu Tianguo immediately rushed to Paris to participate in the World Judo Masters held there on the 4th. Since he then had to quickly attend a weightlifting competition in Moscow on the 8th, Meng Fan only competed in the team events, skipping the individual events due to time constraints.

Then came the Wrestling Masters in Mosang on the 15th, and on the 22nd, he was set to set foot in North America for the North American Judo Invitational in LA.

The schedule was extremely tight, and the gold medals came in quickly, with championship honor points soaring.

(End of chapter)