![\"azizulhasni\"](\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe weight of carrying the hopes of an entire nation – who were counting on him to end the country\u2019s quest for a first-ever Olympic gold medal – finally proved too much for the man known as The Pocket Rocketman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he cracked!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With tears streaming down his cheeks, Azizulhasni kept on apologizing for not fulfilling the hopes of all Malaysians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am very, very sorry,\u201d said the rider, who is competing in his fourth straight Olympics since the 2008 Beijing edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 33-year-old Azizulhasni failed to qualify for the keirin final in Beijing, finished sixth at the 2012 London Games before winning his first Olympic medal – a bronze – at the 2016 Rio edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reezal Merican and Norza then consoled him by telling him that he had given his best and that his silver-medal feat was the pride of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, Azizulhasni has no reason to apologize to anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He performed admirably and should walk with his head held high after giving his best against a top-class field of finalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In today\u2019s race, Azizulhasni came in second just 0.763 seconds behind Kenny, who also won the gold at the 2016 Rio Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Azizulhasni\u2019s silver is the second medal Malaysia have won at the Tokyo Olympics after national shuttlers Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik bagged a bronze in men\u2019s doubles on July 31. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if he will compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Azizulhasni said, \u201cthat is the plan\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he said he wished to take a break first after going through so many ups and downs in his life prior to the Tokyo Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring centralized training, I had to leave my wife and kids behind in Melbourne\u2026\u00a0my children are growing up fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I was about to leave\u00a0for Tokyo, I found out that my father had been admitted to the Kuala Terengganu Hospital for mild stroke. But I had to fulfill my duty to the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TOKYO, Aug 8 — National track cyclist Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang was a picture of calm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","category-sports"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",713,388,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39-300x163.png",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",640,348,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",640,348,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",713,388,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",713,388,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",713,388,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",713,388,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-08-at-15.47.39.png",713,388,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Nation<\/a> Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10635,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions\/10635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}