You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly at the top of your post. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice house the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion.
i'm not sure whether "popular win by him" means that the crowd is happy "him" won or just that "him" is a popular athlete (hence, popular win doesn't have anything to do with winning something, except for the appreciation of the crowd).
It could really be either, though if the commentator was talking at the the time of the event, then it's more likely that the crowd had wanted him to win and not his opponent.
popular win 
Linear Mode
