Chapter 178: Old Friends
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The National University Games were a comprehensive sporting event. The competition scale was no less than any of the other games, but had competitions less often. It worked the same way for the World University Games and the National University Games.
The National University Games, for example, although the competitions were slightly tweaked each year, the total number of events was always around ten.
Excluding performances, the Olympics Games had about thirty official competitions and over 300 small programs all together. The Asian Games had more events than Olympics. Compared to them, the University Games had less than one-third of the competitions than the Asian Games.
There were no events that required expensive equipment such as shooting or archery, nor difficult sports like gymnastics or diving. For the average undergraduate, there weren't many opportunities to use firearms and arrows, nor practice gymnastics and diving.
The competitions in the University Games were popular sports such as track and field, swimming, basketball, ping pong, etc. These games involved many university students. Meanwhile, there were also some non-Olympic events, such as martial arts, aerobics, and orienteering. There were also activities like Contract Bridge.
There were about eleven competitions in the University Games, and events like martial arts, aerobics, and orienteering made up about half of them. There were only six or seven real sports-related programs.
Although there weren't many programs, there were still many candidates. There were over 6,000 students signed up. In comparison, the Olympics only had around 10,000 candidates. It was truly a large amount of people considering it was only a university competition.
A smaller program with more people meant that every sport would have more participants. This was why the University Games didn't restrict enrollment.
In the Olympic Games, the maximum number of group members for each team was three. However, in the University Games, more athletes were allowed for each competition. Take sprinting, for example; the Tsinghua University sprinting team could send three athletes to take part in the contest.
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A few days prior, Dai Li had gone to several big track and field competitions with Li Xue. As a result, Dai Li had gained some experience in guiding teams.
Dai Li didn't have to worry about food and accommodations since the sponsor was in charge of planning everything. All he needed to do was make sure the games went well.
"The stadium in Wanzhou is so spacious. I bet it's top ten in our country. No wonder it's confident it can hold the national games!"
Dai Li looked around and saw that a lot of people were already sitting on the bench. Some of them were holding signs with slogans saying, "Go for it,"followed by the name of a university. There were also cheerleaders in the stands.
So this is the University Games. I have attended some national track and field games, but I have never seen an audience like this. Young people are truly full of passion!"
Someone familiar suddenly walked entered Dai Li's line of sight as he was thinking.
It's Yuejin Chen! So Hanbei Sports College has also joined the game. Dai Li stepped forward. It was the same Yuejin Chen who had brought Dai Li from Yuzhou to Hanbei Sports College, where Dai Li had met Feifei Yu and Zhongyi Xu. It had been two or three years since the last time Dai Li had seen Yuejin Chen.
Dai Li sighed. He had once seen Yuejin Chen as a legend, since Chen had gone to the training camp as a coach. Dai Li used to think it was something that he could never be doing, but now he was on the national team, and was favored by Li Xue.
"Coach Chen!" Dai Li yelled from a distance.
"Dai Li!" Yuejin Chen was surprised. "You're here too! Aren't you working for the provincial team now?"
"I am working for Tsinghua University temporarily," Dai Li explained briefly.
"Tsinghua University!" Yuejin Chen was shocked. He was still confused why Dai Li had gone to Tsinghua, as there seemed to be no relationship between their group and Tsinghua University. But he believed what Dai Li said.
"The Department of Sports in Tsinghua University is much better than our Hanbei Sports College. I am sure you will get dozens of golden medals. Dai Li, What program are you in?"Yuejin Chen asked.
"The sprinting team," Dai Li answered.
"Sprinting! That's the top program in Tsinghua University. I heard there is an athlete on the track and field team in Tsinghua University who is so good that the national team asked him to join them multiple times, but still couldn't get him to say "yes." He is here for the games, isn't he?" Yuejin Chen asked.
Dai Li nodded with a smile. He knew Yuejin Chen was talking about Guohong Niu.
"It's going to be an exciting match. A fight between two tigers!" Yuejin Chen laughed.
"A fight between two tigers?" Dai Li looked at Yuejin Chen, confused.
"You don't know?" Yuejin Chen sighed, then continued, "You have a tough opponent this time. There is a really excellent athlete from Jiangdong who is qualified to play for the national team. He may even be better than your athlete!"
Dai Li frowned. He couldn't believe what Yuejin Chen had just said.
The level of the university athletes varied. But one thing was certain—there couldn't be candidates who were too good due to the enrollment rule.
There was only one enrollment rule—athletes who joined the national competitions before were not allowed to attend University Games.
For all sports, national competitions included the national track and field championships and the Grand Prix; the swimming national championships, the Youth Championships, as well as the national professional swimming league; the National Basketball League, the national championships, the Grand Prix, the professional league, and the tour; the Super Soccer League, the first and second league, and the football team games; and finally, the FA Cup, the Table Tennis Super League, League A, and other regional professional competitions.
Anyone who had been to the games mentioned were not allowed to participate in the National University Games. This had ruled out a lot of top athletes from the National University Games because top athletes would not stay in the college and give up great opportunities just to join the games.
Many top athletes would go to college and finish their undergraduate studies, but when they were given the opportunity to be in the games, they would definitely skip school for it. They needed the experience and opportunity toget exposure.
Once you were involved in national contests, you couldn't go to the National University Games. Because of this, athletes in the University Games were usually not top athletes. They were not capable of being in other national contests, which meant the University Games were their only shot.
Guohong Niu was an exception. He was qualified enough to join the national team, but he didn't want to be there; instead, he had stayed in university to continue his training. This was mainly because Guohong Niu was studying in Tsinghua University, and had an emotional attachment to the famous school. If it had been some other average university, he probably would not have stayed.
Therefore, when Dai Li heard there were athletes as good as Guohong Niu coming to the game, he was really surprised.
I can't believe there is someone better than Guohong Niu, and that he is from the Dongjiang team. They must be from a top university, otherwise the university wouldn't allow the athlete to stay. Even if it's not as good as Tsinghua, it can't be too bad. Nandu University is the only university in the Dongjiang Province, and it is a top 10 school.
Dai Li clenched his fists subconsciously. He really wanted to know who the athlete was!