148 Returning

Shortly after the championship, the Sports Bureau issued a training notice for the 2011 World Aquatics Championships national team, which included a swimming list and Tang Yan's name was listed.

The release of this document also meant that Tang Yan had officially become a member of the national swimming team.

However, one week after the end of the swimming championship, Tang Yan set foot north on the way to Beijing, reporting to the boxing team and archery team.

The purpose was to participate in the upcoming boxing World Championship trials, which was the National Boxing Championship and another purpose was to further his weight gain plan.

When he saw Tang Yan, Qin Hailong was startled. If it weren't for Tang Yan's face, he wouldn't have recognized him.

From when they broke up last year to now, Tang Yan had spent 4 going 5 months in the swimming team. During this time, his nutrition was absolutely top-tier and even with his intense training schedule there had been some development, his whole person had undergone great changes.

When he first joined the swimming team, his height was around 5'6 meters but now he had grown to 5'8 meters and his weight had soared from 52 kg to 57 kg.

And because he was training every day, his body fat percentage was strictly controlled and all that extra mass was solid muscle.

This change surprised Qin Hailong and at the same time it led to some worry.

In boxing, whilst it was common to move or drop a weight class, most changes were within a small range, such as from 49kg to 52, or from 52 to 49kg.

This was because substantial changes in weight resulted in the body undergoing considerable changes in terms of performance, such as speed, strength, explosive power, etc. It even affected reaction time. This would all take time for any boxer to adapt to.

And they were currently only half a month away from the start of the National Championship.

Even if Tang Yan performed well in the previous Asian Games, Qin Hailong felt the pressure.

He immediately started targeted training for Tang Yan.

In the lower weight classes, speed was the most critical factor and good footwork to accompany it was a must and this had been the main aspect of Tang Yan's training before the new year.

But now the emphasis of his training changed more so to focusing on defense and durability, timing and conditioning, all of which require targeted training.

At the 56 kg level, offensive and defensive tactics became more critical.

So with half a month, Qin Hailong began to instill the tactical system of modern boxing into Tang Yan.

Bruce Lee's boxing philosophy was based in the last century. Qin Hailong instilled in him corner tactics and long-range tactics etc.

The training sessions passed by fast and soon it was time for the National Boxing Championship.

This time the championship was held in Zhengding, Hebei, the hometown of the three time gold medalist Zhao Yun.

Zhengding wasn't too far from Beijing.

The World Championship was an intercontinental event. Each country or region could only send one boxer per event to participate. Only those who won their respect events at the championships could qualify for the World Championships.

Because the top 10 of the World Championships could qualify for the Olympic Games, this time almost all the well-known boxers in the country had arrived.

Zou Shiming, Zhang Xiaoping and Zhang Zhilei, all of whom were 2008 Olympic medalists were some of the more major names.

After winning the 49kg event in the Asian Games, Tang Yan could be said to be quite famous in the Chinese boxing scene, his transition to the 55-57kg featherweight class, surprised many other boxers.

Zou Shiming especially was quite surprised, after their past sparring session, he had been looking forward to fighting Tang Yan again and seeing how the kid had improved but now it seemed that was out of the picture.

At this time, the happiest were the boxers in the 52 kg class. Because of Zou Shiming's existence, many had worried that Tang Yan would put on weight in order to avoid facing Zou Shiming.

In which case if he moved up to the next weight class, it would be their weight class, the bantamweight class but luckily he soared straight to 56kg skipping over their weight class.

However, the boxers in the 56kg class didn't have the same tension. Two weight classes up, they didn't think much of Tang Yan's dominance in the 49kg class.

There were a total of 13 people in his weight class.

They were allocated their opponents by picking lots, with one boxer getting a bye into the semi-finals.

Though he didn't obtain the bye, he was the fourth fight so his first fight wouldn't be until tomorrow. So he took to the stands and observed his future opponents in the ring.

After a while, he suddenly shook his head. Although they were national-level boxers, their strength was far worse than those of the Asian Games boxers.

It seemed that this time, he had basically made the cut.

But compared with Tang Yan's calmness, Qin Hailong seemed a little nervous.

Originally his plan was to have Tang Yan participate in the 52kg class, so he and Zou Shiming wouldn't clash and they could have the opportunity for two gold medals instead of one but now things had strayed.

...

On the first day of the competition, due to the large gap between the boxers, there was no upset. Zou Shiming, Zhang Xiaoping, Zhang Zhilei and Tang Yan all easily advanced to the next round.

In fact, because the domestic boxing level wasn't high, there were very few spectators at the tournament this time. The boxing hall, which could accommodate more than 3,000 people, wasn't even full.

What surprised the organizers was that on the second day of the preliminary rounds, the number of spectators suddenly doubled and almost two-thirds of the seats were full.

And many of these new audience members were carrying special banners and the words on them were quite eye-catching.

The Boxing Killer Returns, Tang Yan!