Chapter 538: Competition Concluded

Chapter 538: The Competition Ends

100.10 meters! NEW-WR!

Meng Fan’s first attempt was valid, and as it appeared, the Eighty Thousand People Stadium, which had just erupted, boiled over once more because of him.

The commentators on the commentary platform rose to their feet, half of them gripping the desk with both hands and staring wide-eyed, while the other half stared wide-eyed, gripping the desk.

“One hundred point one meters!”

“It’s here, the first result to break the hundred-meter barrier!”

“Meng Fan! Him again! After shattering the shot put world record that had stood for thirty-one years, he has now broken the javelin world record that had stood for twenty-five years!”

“The world records for the four throwing events—hammer, shot put, discus, and javelin—are known as the Four Iron Walls. The ‘youngest,’ the javelin record, is already twenty-five years old; the ‘oldest,’ the hammer and discus, are both thirty-five. Each is incredibly hard to break. And this javelin world record, though it looks the youngest, is actually the toughest, based on the performances of javelin throwers in recent years—the best results have a gap of five meters!”

“Strictly speaking, Meng Fan’s throw is not the first in history to break the hundred-meter barrier. An athlete once threw 104.80 meters, but that was before the rule change. The weight of the javelin before and after the change was the same; the biggest difference was that the center of gravity was moved back one centimeter. That single centimeter caused the javelin to fall faster during flight, thus curbing a surge in results. Why such a change? It came down to venue limitations—distances over a hundred meters posed a danger to spectators. Even now, not all venues that meet javelin competition standards can accommodate a hundred-meter flight without threatening audience safety!”

“This throw by Meng Fan will pose a tremendous challenge to the venues of any future track and field events! Whether the IAAF will consider changing the javelin specifications again or impose higher requirements on venues will be a headache for them!”

“Over thirty years ago, a group of athletes, due to gradual improvements in javelin specifications and technique, combined with venue constraints, forced the IAAF to reform. Today, Meng Fan, with his own strength, has hurled this problem back at the IAAF. For twenty-five years, everyone believed Jan Železný’s 98.48 meters was the human limit. Today, Meng Fan’s throw proves that human potential knows no bounds!”

“At this moment, I think many will say that with strength, you can do whatever you want. Let me add something here. Because I was once a javelin thrower myself, I can’t say much about other events like shot put, but for Meng Fan’s javelin to achieve such a result, it’s not just about strength—his technique is extremely strong. I can assert that Meng Fan’s strength is unmatched by other javelin throwers, and the same goes for his technique.”

“I once spoke with Coach Xu, who is in charge of Meng Fan’s javelin training. He gave this assessment of Meng Fan. First, Meng Fan’s ability to learn movements is extremely strong, largely based on his understanding of the human body and muscle structure. He said something like this: you can’t imagine how short the time was for Meng Fan to go from an unorthodox, non-standard style to standard movements, and then to train movements suited to his abilities. Second, Meng Fan’s training volume is enormous, so huge it’s hard to imagine—just like in his other events, his training volume is often three, five, or even ten times that of others. Third, back to Meng Fan’s technical movements: Coach Xu said that the entire javelin team’s young athletes are now learning the essentials of Meng Fan’s technique. It hasn’t been long, but results are already showing, and it will be passed down to provincial and municipal teams and sports schools.”

“I think after this competition, many athletes and coaches from other countries will come to study and analyze Meng Fan’s technique and learn from it!”

“With just one throw, Meng Fan has conquered this battlefield!”

The CCTV5 commentator on the platform, having been involved in this event, spoke with great enthusiasm, not just rattling off data like the others.

…

“Awesome!”

Rohler, who had been world number one for several years, took the initiative to greet Meng Fan as he came down, using Chinese—though it was unclear where he had learned those two words.

Originally, he had regarded Meng Fan as a rival because of the results Meng Fan had thrown at the Asian Athletics Grand Prix. As a rival, there was naturally both defiance and admiration. Now that Meng Fan had broken the hundred-meter barrier and set a new world record, both defiance and admiration were shattered, leaving only worship.

This is roughly what it means to win fans through strength.

In the subsequent competition, although Rohler did not, like the shot put circle, become pumped up and produce good results or even exceed expectations—different circles have different ways of handling major surprises—he still stabilized his performance and was not overly negatively affected by Meng Fan.

As for Meng Fan, he naturally became the sole focus of this javelin competition. His next five attempts lived up to the expectations of everyone watching. Among the five throws, two were within a hundred meters—96.68 meters and 98.33 meters—while the other three exceeded a hundred meters.

Second attempt: 101.34 meters.

Third attempt: 102.06 meters.

Final attempt: after two consecutive throws that failed to break a hundred meters, Meng Fan threw 104.80 meters!

And 104.80 meters became the new world record!

It improved the previous world record before this competition by 6.30 meters.

This was a number that drove the track and field world wild!

The original world record was already enough to make people shrink back in awe; now, with this one, the entire generation of athletes was basically deflated. No one had any thought of climbing this peak, including Rohler. After all, he was already at his peak; going further would be very difficult. There might still be room for improvement, but at most one or two meters. If his inner universe exploded and conditions were perfect, he might improve by three meters, but getting close to the original record was only a faint possibility.

A simple award ceremony: Meng Fan also earned 8 points in the javelin event.

After the men’s javelin ended, the Diamond League meet was nearing its conclusion. About half an hour later, all events finished.

Amid the roar of the crowd cheering for Meng Fan, the organizers had no choice but to invite Meng Fan for a “curtain call” on the field. When Meng Fan came up, he waved to express his gratitude, then participated in the post-competition press conference with other gold medalists.

At this Diamond League Shanghai leg, the Chinese track and field team achieved its best results ever. Excluding Meng Fan, they won a total of eight medals, including three golds.

Gong Lijiao performed steadily to win the women’s shot put title. Before Meng Fan’s javelin event, Lü Shuanghui had already won the women’s javelin championship. It could be said that the Chinese team monopolized all the throwing event titles at the Shanghai leg—a tale worth telling!

Xie Zhenye won the men’s 200-meter sprint and once again broke the Asian record for the men’s 200 meters. As for the men’s 100 meters, with many famous sprinters present and all performing well, Su Bingtian faced great difficulty in winning gold, but he performed exceptionally well under strong pressure and finished third.

(End of chapter)