Hima Das created history on Thursday when she became the first athlete from India to win a gold medal in a global event. She won the women’s 400-metre race at the IAAF World U-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.
While she won a gold and made India proud on a global platform Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had some fluency problem in the interview she gave to the Tampere media and a tweet came from AFI’s official account which stated:
#HimaDas speking to media after her SF win at #iaaftampere2018 @iaaforg Not so fluent in English but she gave her best there too. So proud of u #HimaDas Keep rocking & yeah,try ur best in final! @ioaindia @IndianOlympians @TejaswinShankar @PTI_News @StarSportsIndia @hotstartweets pic.twitter.com/N3PdEamJen
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018
The tweet that came from their official account was harshly treated by the netizens and they were all red. One of the tweets read:
Also she comes from a very humble background & can not even speak Hindi fluently, we are applauding her effort to face journalists & trying her best to speak in English. Hope now you understand that tweet.
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018
After receiving the backlash, AFI tweeted their apology by saying:
सभी भारतवासियों से क्षमा अगर हमारी एक TWEET से आप आहत हुए है!असल उद्देश्य यह दर्शाना था कि हमारी धाविका किसी भी कठनाई से नहीं घबराती, मैदान के अंदर या बाहर! छोटे से गाँव से आने के बावजूद, विदेश में अंग्रेजी पत्रकार से बेझिझक बात की! एक बार फिर उनसे क्षमा जो नाराज हैं, जय हिन्द!
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 13, 2018
After some time, they tweeted:
Also she comes from a very humble background & can not even speak Hindi fluently, we are applauding her effort to face journalists & trying her best to speak in English. Hope now you understand that tweet.
— Athletics Federation of India (@afiindia) July 12, 2018
After her historic win, she termed it the biggest achievement of her life and added that she cried with joy on the podium when India’s national anthem was played.
“I wanted the Indian national anthem to be played and making that happen made me cry with joy,” she said. “I will try to give my best at the Asian Games. I don’t run after medals, I run after time,” Hima added, who clocked 51.46 seconds in the final at the Ratina Stadium to bring home the gold medal.