Chapter 2360 - 599: If Heaven Had Not Birthed Huang Kaiwen
Whoosh,
Whoosh,
Whoosh,
Whoosh,
Whoosh——
The ranking match consists of seventy-two arrows in total.
It’s divided into two rounds, with 36 arrows per round, 6 arrows in a group, which must be completed within 4 minutes.
They take a break before continuing with the second round, totaling seventy-two arrows in all.
While Kogawa Takaharu was still aiming his second arrow, Huang Kaiwen had already completed his first group.
He couldn’t help but glance in Huang Kaiwen’s direction with his peripheral vision.
Seeing that Huang Kaiwen remained motionless, he couldn’t resist turning his head.
F**k!
The mental state collapsed.
𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Some hadn’t even released their first arrow, but Huang Kaiwen had already finished 6 arrows.
Looking at the target with the most arrows stuck in it ahead, by instinct, he knew, the score wasn’t low!
Brady Ellison felt even worse than others.
He was one of the few not affected by Lim Dong-hyun’s 699 points.
After all, the ranking match’s results have little impact on the subsequent competitions.
Brady Ellison is currently ranked number one in the world, and even the strongest South Korean team in archery mostly loses when encountering the USA Team led by Brady Ellison.
Last year, in various international competitions, Brady Ellison took most of the championships.
Sports data company Infostrada predicted he and Huang Kaiwen as the hot favorites for the championship.
But standing beside Huang Kaiwen today, the two compete on the same stage.
He didn’t even turn his head but could hear the bowstrings next to him frequently making sounds.
That slight whooshing sound seemed to lash against his face, occurring at the same frequency once, twice, three times... until it lashed six times.
F**k!!!
Previously, he laughed at British soccer players as cowards.
But now he finally understood Hart, Buffon, those goalkeepers’ thoughts.
Damn it, this guy is a master at messing with the psyche!
Forcing himself under pressure, he finished one group.
Brady Ellison was already slightly panting.
His physical stamina wasn’t much consumed, but the psychological pressure was immense.
He made a mistake.
This group should be around 55 points.
Starting with such an error was simply a nightmare for him.
points, one point less than he thought.
The coach, who had been holding a telescope at the sidelines, came over and said, "Kevin, 60 points."
Brady Ellison:...
You damn it!
Ellison suspected the coach was paid off, deliberately to mess with him.
Mauro Nespoli also shot 60 points.
However, he knew well how Huang Kaiwen achieved it.
The value of their respective 60 points was world’s apart.
But as an Italian athlete, he himself had quite a good mentality.
He believed Huang Kaiwen rightfully deserved to win.
Even the Italian media didn’t think he had the strength to challenge for the gold medal, more crucially the media and the public didn’t seem to support him.
Four years ago, he was the bronze medalist.
Today, his goal is still third place.
Seeing the floundering American, Mauro Nespoli smiled.
"Two of them are clueless, now they’re screwed, aren’t they?"
If this continues, the bronze medal will be much easier to obtain.
Not sure if that South Korean guy will be affected, Mauro Nespoli thought he might be. Maybe he could sneak a silver medal behind Huang Kaiwen!
With an excellent mentality, Mauro Nespoli’s second group was also 60 points, same as Huang Kaiwen.
Brady Ellison slightly adjusted his state, but still couldn’t shoot a 60, with only 113 points after two rounds. Kogawa Takaharu was slightly better with 116 points.
In the first round, everyone had good physical and mental states, so scores were better at this phase.
The following thirty-six arrows would be the real test.
Like Brady Ellison and Kogawa Takaharu, making mistakes right at the start was extremely rare for top archers.
The "The Great Wall Never Falls" ended, but the music seemed to linger in everyone’s mind.
Seeing his score, Brady Ellison protested to the referees: "Someone played a song, it affected me."
The referee shrugged and indicated the match to continue.
A two-minute song, can it affect your competition for over an hour?
Kogawa Takaharu didn’t protest.
But he already thought of what to tell the domestic media.
He was targeted!
Yesterday, he was taken out by the British to see the moon while other national teams watched the torches.
Today, another Chinese song played live.
So it wasn’t that he made a mistake, it was the organizing committee’s fault.
Don’t overlook just a ranking match, similar to soccer’s qualifiers, if you get through, it’s enough.
But because of the South Korean players’ strength, Japan domestically gave him a lot of pressure. "Asahi Shimbun" previously wrote: even if you can’t surpass Kevin, you must overpower the South Korean team.
That’s the relationship between the two countries.
Competition exists in all aspects.
With Lim Dong-hyun’s 699-point world record ahead and Huang Kaiwen’s 120 points with eyes closed in 2 groups behind.
Kogawa Takaharu knew today he would only be a background.
But on second thought.
Mentioning the Chinese song might not garner much support.
Huang Kaiwen had too many supporters.
Who knows, after an interview, his mom might just call him to scold him across the ocean.
Damn it, so annoying!
The match had been going on for 12 minutes.
The scene was like a volcano about to erupt.
After three groups, only Huang Kaiwen had 180 points, all 18 arrows at ten points each!
The British television station was going mad.
The opening ceremony had a domestic audience of 26.9 million, setting a new record since 1998, with the UK having just over 60 million in total population.
But this match’s viewership surpassed even the opening ceremony.
Even if it was a Saturday factor, it was still quite astonishing.
It’s worth noting that this match was held in the morning London time, whereas the opening ceremony was during prime time in the evening.