Hyderabad: The Athletics Federation of India that was criticised on Twitter for commenting on the not-so-fluent English of athlete Hima Das, has issued an apology but refused to take down the post. Das, as is now well known, has become India’s first woman athlete to win gold in a world track event.
In an official tweet, while sharing a video of Hima’s comments (where the post itself misspelt a word), AFI said, " # HimaDas ‘Speking’ to media after her SF 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.
As of Friday 9pm the tweet was still up and had garnered close to 1.7 K comments, 921 re-tweets and 3.3k likes.
AFI had posted an interview of the 18-year-old champion that was taken soon after she smashed the semi-finals of the World U20 championship in Tampere Finland.
Asked by the interviewer how she felt after that race, Hima said, “I am feeling good, a very beautiful stadium, track, audience who have been supporting all players.”
Questioned on her strategy for the final, she said, “I am confident about the final, I will try my best.”
The athlete from the state of Assam showed much more grace and sense when she replied: “My English isn’t that good, maybe just 40 per cent fine by normal standards. There is nothing wrong with it and I haven’t felt bad at all.”
