Chapter 134: Hit Twice

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Everyone had heard the name Jihai Ding. Jihai Ding was the coach of Feixiang Lin, and as Feixiang Lin had become more popular, Jihai Ding"s name had begun to spread widely as well.

In the hierarchy of the national track and field team, Jihai Ding was probably the most well known after the head coach, Shuren Zhao and the a.s.sistant head coach, Li Xue. Coaches like Jinrong Hu were famous, but he could not be compared to Jihai Ding.

All the domestic athletes wors.h.i.+pped Jihai Ding, and treated him as their idol. They all wanted to be the next Feixiang Lin. As for domestic coaches, they wanted to become the next Jihai Ding. Apparently, being trained by Jihai Ding was much better than training under Jinrong Hu.

"When Dai Li was on the national team, he was under Coach Ding!"

"Coach Ding, the one who teaches the 110-meter hurdles. You can learn a lot from him in a short period of time."

"I"m so jealous of Dai Li. If I got chance to be train under Coach Ding for just a second, I would be so happy and satisfied."

"Coach Ding is a professional. You can become a top coach even if you just learn a little from him!"

The other coaches were conversing quietly. Everyone was looking at Dai Li in admiration except for Xuexi Zhuang. He felt as if he had just been hit twice.

Why? Why is he the one? Why would Jihai Ding take him?

After a deep breath, Xuexi Zhuang comforted himself. Although Dai Li is under Jihai Ding, he was just a helper, running errands for others and training some freshmen. He is not qualified enough to be involved in Teng Dong"s training, let alone Feixiang Lin"s!

In Xuexi Zhuang"s eyes, it was already a privilege to have been trained under Jihai Ding. He could not understand why a young coach like Dai Li had been permitted to join the training sessions for the best athletes in the world.

At that moment, the head of the provincial sport bureau asked, "Are you saying that Jihai Ding was the head coach of Feixiang Lin?"

The head of the sport bureau had began his career as organized personnel in the system, and had never worked as a coach or an athlete. Therefore, he could not see why other people admired Jihai Ding, or understand the special place Jihai Ding had in the coaches" hearts.

"Right, Coach Ding is the head coach of Feixiang Lin," Jinrong Hu siad, "By the way, when Dai Li was on the national team, he was involved in Feixiang Lin"s training."

The head of the bureau nodded his head, smiling. It was obvious that he did not realize how big a deal this was, while all the professional coaches were completely shocked.

"Did you hear that? Coach Hu just said Dai Li was involved in Feixiang Lin"s training!"

"I know Dai Li is a great coach, but I did not expect him to be so excellent that he could be part of Feixiang Lin"s training."

"The reason Jihai Ding did this was because he saw the ability in Dai Li! It seems that our team is not good enough for Dai Li. The national team is where he belongs!"

All professional athletes knew what it meant to be a part of Feixiang Lin"s training. Feixiang Lin was regarded as the greatest track and field athlete in the world. The training he took part in was the best in every aspect, from the intensity to the theory. It was a unique learning experience to be part of his training.

For athletes like Feixiang Lin, not just anyone was capable of becoming his coach. Only a superb coach, who was qualified enough and had great training results, could have the chance to be Feixiang Lin"s coach. Almost everyone looked at Dai Li in admiration upon hearing that he had helped Feixiang Lin train.

Pa pa pa pa pa! Xuexi Zhuang felt like someone had smacked him in his face. He was so embarra.s.sed that he wanted to hide under the floor.

In his eyes, even though Dai Li had been under Jihai Ding, he should not have had the chance to meet excellent athletes. Xuexi Zhuang was already unhappy thinking about the fact that Dai Li was involved in Teng Dong"s training. Now that he knew that Dai Li had been part of Feixiang Lin"s training, Xuexi Zhuang was really upset.

This cannot be true. This is impossible! Xuexi Zhuang tried to convince himself that all of this was a lie, and tried to forget about it. But the words had come straight from Jinrong Hu"s mouth. How could it be a lie?

Dai Li smiled shyly. He could feel the eyes of the crowd on him. He felt embarra.s.sed.

All the coaches here did not really know what had happened, and thought Dai Li was liked by Jihai Ding only because of his ability. In actuality, he had joined Feixiang Lin"s training coincidentally.

If Dai Li had not accidentally met Feixiang Lin during a meal with Feifei Yu, he would have probably been on another coach"s team by now. If Dai Li had not helped Feixiang Lin return to a decent ability level, Jihai Ding would not have come back to Feixiang Lin, and things would not be the way they were today.

…

Afterwards, they had to evaluate Haiquan Fang"s performance. Usually there would be an introduction of his basic background first, like his date of birth, hometown, family members, education, when and where he had been trained previously, who his previous coaches were, etc. These things could all be found in Haiquan Fang"s doc.u.ment, but they still had to go through the procedure.

More specifically, when they introduced Haiquan Fang"s training background, they introduced the school as well; and when they introduced Haiquan Fang"s former coach, they would go through both the coach"s profile and his career information.

"So Haiquan Fang is the son of the head of the Continental Corporation? That is why I found his name familiar. About two years ago, they invited me to come to Qing to teach young athletes. I was too busy to do so, so I asked one of my colleagues to help out. Haiquan Fang was the one he was tutoring!"

Jinrong Hu laughed. "I would have come and seen it for myself if I had known earlier that Haiquan Fang was such a talented young man."

"Coach Hu, if you had come in person, Haiquan Fang would have been taken from us, and it would have had nothing to do with our team!" Bin Lu said. People were amused by what he had said.

Next, Dai Li introduced some basic training information about Haiquan Fang, such as whether he had a positive att.i.tude when being trained, if he was diligent on a daily basis, what his advantages and disadvantages were; everything about his long jumping performance, basically. After Dai Li"s introduction, Jinrong Hu knew more about Haiquan Fang.

After that, there was a field study waiting for them, which included a practice session and a long jumping test.

During the probation period, Jinrong Hu had begun to like Haiquan Fang, and had even coached him in person.

For coaches, the best thing that could happen to them was meeting a genius young athlete. Before the probation ended, Jinrong Hu had decided to have Haiquan Fang on the national team and take him as his trainee.

Bin Lu was over the moon. One was considered lucky if they could send one of their athletes from the provincial team to the national youth team; in this case, the athlete had been sent straight to the national team, and to the most famous coach in Jinrong Hu, no less. Bin Lu could imagine their team being nominated to the list of excellent track and field youth groups at the end of the year.

…

In the evening, the youth team welcomed Jinrong Hu with a meal.

After a while, as Dai Li went to make a toast, Jinrong Hu talked with him.

"Dai Li, our national team borrows a lot of coaches every year, but there are not many who can achieve something once they go back. You are a decent man, and I have faith in you!" said Jinrong Hu. Obviously he had been drinking a lot. Dai Li could tell from his breath.

"Thank you, Coach Hu. I still have much to learn. I will keep working on it." Dai Li hadn"t been drinking much, so he was still sober.

Jinrong Hu continued speaking, saying, "Dai Li, I have news for you. The new National Youth Training Program is about to begin, and there is limited s.p.a.ce. The sport bureau you are in will soon be notified. Go sign up if you can, and attend the training we hold. We need talented young men like you to join our national team!"