"Hiss..." Gladion narrowed his eyes. "There seems to be a rumor like that among Alola's Island Guard, too."
Shen Qi had no time to worry about what people had mistaken him for. He sped along on Little Sheep.
The Pokémon Trainer Finals started at ten in the morning, while the Pokémon event started at two in the afternoon. That sounded like plenty of time between them, but it really wasn't.
Starting at ten, the contestants entered, went through preliminary inspections, and then proceeded to the Qualifying Race. That alone took at least thirty or forty minutes.
Only a handful of the twenty contestants finished in under eight minutes. With occasional pauses to repair affected obstacles, the entire Qualifying Race took over three hours.
Then there was a break before the Main Race.
After the Main Race, there were group photos, the award ceremony, and a whole series of other proceedings. As the Champion, Shen Qi certainly couldn't slip away.
In fact, according to the schedule, the Pokémon Qualifying Race began around the time the Pokémon Trainer Main Race ended. That was very convenient for broadcasting, and viewers could keep watching one after the other.
But for someone like Shen Qi, who wanted to finish all the follow-up proceedings and then rush to the other venue, making it in time was genuinely difficult.
It was already past four thirty when he left Vanilla Island. He definitely wouldn't reach Sunshine Bridge Circuit, where Lilligant and Lopunny were competing in the Finals, in time for the start of the Main Race.
He could only hope the Main Race wouldn't already be over when he arrived. Otherwise, Shen Qi... might only get there in time to attend the award ceremony with Lilligant.
Lilligant should have had the strength to place in the top