It wasn't just Su Shen, the sprint coach, who was surprised.
Even the staff who didn't specialize in sprinting were astonished by Wang Yi's explosive power as he ran, by the way every step seemed to launch him forward.
Every one of them was amazed.
When Wang Yi finally crossed the finish line, the timer stopped at 9.71 seconds.
Wang Yi glanced back at the timer and shook his head helplessly.
He looked down at his little paunch.
Then he gave everyone an awkward smile. "Sorry, I've been slacking off a bit these past two weeks. I only managed 9.71 seconds. I hope you'll forgive me."
Su Shen turned his face away.
I've been running for years, and my best time is 9.83.
You just casually run 9.71.
And you call that slacking off?
You're rubbing it in my face, aren't you?
The coaches and staff nearby all wore expressions of disbelief.
Come on, you're obviously just showing off!
What did 9.71 seconds mean?
The Asian 100-meter record was the 9.83 seconds Su Shen had set at the Olympic Games.
For more than ten years after that, no one in Asia had managed to break the record.
Recently, the Korean sprint prodigy Park Bo-seong had run 9.85 seconds, coming very close to it. Rumor had it that he'd clocked 9.79 during individual training.
But since that hadn't been in a competition, it hadn't been officially recognized as an Asian record.
Meanwhile, Wang Yi had run in sneakers, with a little paunch.
And, as he put it, he'd been slacking off.
Even while slacking off, he'd broken the Asian record. How strong would he be if he weren't slacking off?
To these people, Wang Yi was humblebragging.
But Wang Yi genuinely felt that he wasn't in good shape now.
When he'd