A video of Dato’ Azizul greeting the spectators after his keirin event circulated Twitter and had since garnered 200,000 views. While the national cyclist fell short on winning the gold medal, he certainly won the hearts of the Japanese audience!
In the short clip, Azizul was seen approaching the spectators and handing out souvenirs. Before leaving the track, he also waved and bowed to supporters.
Commenters in the twitter thread speculated that Azizul might be giving out Malaysian Olympic souvenir pins as mentioned in Azizul’s vlog earlier in the Olympic event.
While the tweet was in Japanese, Malaysian netizens were eager to help with the translation of the congratulatory message.
Men’s Keirin!
Won the silver medal, Malaysia Muhammad Azizulhasni Awang.
It caught the heart of the audience.
As soon as he got off the bike, he went to the audience, greeted them, bowed his head many times and waved.
It’s a beloved character (^^)
Congratulations!
Comments on the original tweet showed Malaysian thanking Yamato for the video as well as the hospitality Japan has offered to Malaysian Athletes at the Tokyo Olympic.
With so much positive response, Yamato could not help himself but return the favour. He responded to the enthusiastic replies by tweeting in Bahasa Melayu.
I am happy that Malaysians liked my video. I like Malaysia.”
Although there was a mistranslation, netizens were happy to laugh it off, saying that it was a cute mistake.
Proofreader: Grace Choong
