132 4X100m Freestyle Finals

Tang Yan and Sun Yang took the lead to go ashore.

After Sun Yang came ashore, he lay directly by the side of the swimming lane, his chest continued to rise and fall as he tried to regain his breath.

In contrast, Tang Yan's reaction was less striking. He sat beside him and took in deep breaths.

It wasn't until Zhang Lin finished the race and left the pool that Sun Yang was able to get up with the help of Tang Yan and in his place was Zhang Lin was lying there after coming ashore.

At this time, Tang Yan who had to help Sun Yang up, waited again in the same place.

This amazing performance from Tang Yan allowed him to acquire a large group of new fans. When the results were announced, the screams of female fans were particularly obvious.

....

That evening, at the 800m finals, the three from Zhejiang won gold, silver and bronze. It was another intense competition as expected but the results were the same as before but the fierce competition wasn't necessarily a good thing for the Zhejiang Province.

Because tonight, in addition to the 800m freestyle final, there was also another finale.

The 4X100m final.

Most swimming competitions had preliminaries during the day and finals at night, and the 4X100 freestyle relay was no exception.

The teams that broke into the finals of the relay were the Guangdong team, the Fujian team, the Beijing team, the Zhejiang provincial team, the Hubei swimming team, the Sichuan provincial team, the Liaoning team and the Hainan team.

The best time in the preliminaries were by the Hubei team, who were placed in the fourth lane, in the third lane was the Zhejiang team.

Because of Tang Yan's strong performance in the preliminaries, Shen Qing adjusted the order and adjusted Tang Yan from the 2nd stick to the 4th stick.

As 4th stick, he was the last swimmer a crucial role. This arrangement also reflected Shen Qing's trust in Tang Yan.

In addition to Tang Yan's adjustment, Qiu Ziyang, who had a poor performance in the preliminaries was replaced by Zhang Lin.

By the time the other events were over, it was 11pm. But the stands were still full of people. The next race was one they didn't want to miss.

The swimmers of each team were introduced again. Compared with the preliminaries, Tang Yan's debut was no longer surprising. On the contrary, when he was introduced to the crowd, the audience gave him an explosive welcome.

In the two races, Tang Yan had gained a very high popularity for himself.

After the swimmers were introduced, the commentators on the side couldn't stand the silence and began to talk.

"It's the most anticipated 4X100m freestyle relay. Which team do you think is more likely to win this gold medal."

"Well, I think the most promising team is still the Hubei swimming team. Ning Xuan is on another level this season and his team mates have great acceleration enough to hold their own ground. This has already been proven in the preliminaries. Of course, Hainan and the Beijing teams also performed well in the preliminaries and they are also very promising."

"Oh, why not the Zhejiang Province? They've now substituted in Zhang Lin to replace the Qiu Ziyang after his weak performance. With Zhang Lin, Lu Zhibin, Sun Yang and Tang Yan, based on their previous performance they're definitely contenders. It's an all-star lineup."

"On paper maybe but if you look deeper, you will find that this is not the case."

"How so?"

"First of all, I think that using Zhang Lin to replace Qiu Ziyang isn't the best option especially after that 800m final that we just watched, they've just swapped out a fresh swimmer for a fatigued one.

Their team is now made up of three such swimmers and whilst they've had a few hours to rest, their bodies still won't be in top condition compared to the others, who haven't had any other events till now. After such a big consumption race, do you think they can still exert their full strength in the relay race?"

"Hmm, in that case, it really seems that the Zhejiang Province might take a big loss due to the arrangement of the event."

"This is a no-brainer. The Zhejiang Province is good at medium and long distance projects. They've always lacked slightly on short distance events."

...

With the commentators argument, the 1st stick swimmers shook their arms to wake up their muscles and they all walked to their respective platforms.

Seeing the race about to begin.

Some of the audience took out their phones early and started to take pictures. Afraid of missing any detail.

"Take your marks"

"Buzz!"

With the buzz, the swimmers bowed and dove forward into the pool.

The audience looked over at the pool with a puzzled look, the swimmer from the Hainan Province in the eighth lane was looking downcast.

It turned out they had jumped the start.

The Hainan team that jumped the gun directly lost the opportunity to compete just like that.

There rules were extremely strict any starts before the starting signal was an automatic disqualification.

The audience was amazed. They didn't expect a team to get disqualified so abruptly.

It was clear to see tensions for the finals were high and this false start just added to it.

All the swimmers returned to the starting platform for the second time. With the example of Hainan, everyone paid extra care this time.

With the sound of the buzzer, the 4X100m freestyle relay race officially started!

With the beginning of the race, the audience launched into cheering.

The relay race like track and field was a stimulating adrenaline rush and many viewers stood up and began to cheer.

Zhang Lin managed to grab first place of the bat.

The Hubei swimmer and the Beijing team followed behind closely. On the other side of the pool, the swimmers of Fujian and Sichuan  also followed suit with negligible disadvantages.

They were all caught in fierce competition with each other.

But the first 50 meters not much changed but after 50m turn, the situation changed greatly.