KUALA LUMPUR: As world Keirin champion Azizulhasni Awang delivered Malaysia’s 111th gold last night, Malaysians from all walks of life flooded social media with messages of congratulations to the national Sea Games contingent.
Malaysian leaders, too, joined in, with Datuk Seri Najib Razak one of the first to tweet his congratulations.
The prime minister said Malaysia had created history by achieving the 111 gold medal target.
In fact, Najib first mentioned the feat even before Azizulhasni won his sprint gold at the National Velodrome in Nilai.
At that time, Malaysia was already assured of two more gold medals — the 110th and 111th — as the men’s and women’s sprint category were in fact all-Malaysian finals.
“Tonight we created history. We have reached the target of achieving 111 goal medals for the Sea Games 2017 and have become the unofficial champion for the games,” he said after launching the first phase of the River of Life (RoL) project and Blue Pool Project (Kolam Biru) at Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad.
(With only 67 gold medals up for grabs in the final two days of the Games, Thailand has a numerical, though unlikely, chance of beating Malaysia to the overall title.)
Shortly after, Najib took it to Twitter to convey his hearty congratulations to the athletes.
“YB KJ (Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin) just informed me that Malaysia has earned 111 gold medals! (This is) great and congratulations to our contingent,” he posted.
Khairy, in his Twitter account, posted a brief tweet saying: “Mission accomplished. #111 done. #KitaJuara.”
This was at 8.46pm, also before the actual medals were won.
Several other ministers also took to social media to congratulate the team. This included Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek and Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau.
“Congratulations Azizul for delivering the 111th gold for Malaysia #BangkitBersama (rise together),” Shabery wrote.
Wilfred congratulated Khairy and the Malaysian team for achieving the target.
Twitter user @VeeSakkkk said: “Congratulations Malaysia for achieving the target of 111 golds! The Pocket Rocket Man done it for 111th gold!”
Another user @IanRosli, congratulated the keirin champion for earning the 111th gold medal.
“Alhamdulillah.. Thank you champ for (the) 111th gold! @AzizulAWANG #KL2017,” he posted.
User @azirashareena posted: “Congratulations Malaysia! Thank you to all athletes! Gold 111! #KL2017 #CiptaSejarahBersama #RisingTogether.”