In the last 50 meters, Chinese team player Zhang Zhanshuo kept accelerating, overtaking South Korean team player Huang Xuanyou, and maintained the advantage until the end. The audience burst into cheers and applause. On September 23, in the men's 200-meter freestyle final of the 20th Asian Games, Zhang Zhanshuo won the gold medal with a time of 1 minute, 43 seconds and 49 seconds, and set a new Asian record.
Since the start of this Asian Games, Chinese athletes have achieved consecutive successes, constantly rewritten records, and painted a bright youthful background with tenacious hard work.
In gymnastics competition, victory or defeat is decided by a hair's breadth. On September 23, in the men's gymnastics team finals, the Chinese team consisting of Zhang Boheng, Zou Jingyuan, Sun Wei, Lan Xingyu and Tian Hao competed fiercely with their opponents from the first round of floor exercise. After the first five rounds, the Chinese team is temporarily 1.934 points ahead of the second-place Japanese team.
The suspense continued until the final round of the horizontal bar event. The Japanese player Yuharu Kakumin who took the lead scored 13.766 points. Sun Wei made a mistake and the Chinese team's lead was less than 1 point. After that, Tian Hao seized the opportunity of Japanese team Shinnosuke Oka's mistake to help the Chinese team regain stability. Faced with the high-scoring performance of the Tokyo Olympics individual all-around champion Hashimoto Daiki, Zhang Boheng climbed up the bar, flipped, and landed in one go. His perfect performance helped the Chinese team seal the victory and achieve three consecutive Asian Games titles.
Achievements are hard-won. Zhang Boheng suffered an arm strain before the game, but he withstood the pressure and won the men's individual all-around and team gold medals. He attributed the victory to the entire team, "We are a team that strives for excellence and has trained countless times at 'home' in order to pursue more valuable results."
In the women's gymnastics team final held on the same day, the Chinese team dared to fight despite a bad start and completed a comeback, achieving its 14th consecutive Asian Games title in this event.
In the competition in the swimming pool, the Chinese team has made many achievements. It has already rewritten 4 Asian records and multiple competition records, especially in the relay events, which fully reflects the team's resilience. In the men's 4×200m freestyle relay final, the Japanese team put their strong stick forward and tried to use their opening advantage to seal the victory. In difficult moments, the whole team supported each other and exerted their strength: Xu Haibo adjusted his nervous state in the preliminaries and swam faster in the finals; Fei Liwei, although tense, still tried his best; Pan Zhanle struggled to catch up and narrow the gap. The pressure was left to Zhang Zhanshuo, who made the last move. "I have three very strong teammates, why should I be afraid?" With the belief that "this tone must not be relaxed," he swam a time of 1 minute, 42 seconds and 92 seconds to help the Chinese team win the gold medal.
The moving part of competitive sports is not only the highlight moment of standing on the highest podium, but also the spirit of not bowing down and moving forward in the face of adversity.
In the shooting arena, Chinese team players frequently set new world records. Sheng Lihao won three gold medals in a row, and Wang Zifei and Jiang Yiting won two gold medals... With their "big hearts", they showed their perseverance in the competition.
The game continues and the fight never stops. Chinese athletes show their love on the field, break through themselves in challenges, and turn every jump, every shot, and every row into steps to pursue their dreams.
(People’s Daily reporters Sun Longfei, Tao Xiangan, Gao Ji, People’s Daily reporter Liu Yao, and People’s Daily reporter Hu Xuerong participated in the interview)
