Hima Das
Hima Das

The Athletics Federation of India apologized on Twitter on Friday, after facing backlash from critics on social media about a tweet posted on Hima Dasโ€™s English speaking skills in what was supposed to be a congratulatory tweet. Interestingly the AFIโ€™s tweet in English was also not error free โ€“ โ€˜speakingโ€™ was written as โ€˜spekingโ€™.

This is the tweet posted by AFI apologizing for the derogatory tweet.

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Das scripted history on Thursday as she clinched the gold medal in the 400m final โ€“ at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletic Championships in Tampere, Finland โ€“ becoming the first Indian to do so in a track event.

Posting a video of journalists interviewing Hima, who won Indiaโ€™s first gold medal at an international track event, the AFI tweeted, โ€œNot so fluent in English but she gave her best there too.โ€

The tweet triggered an angry stream of messages. AFI was rightly roasted on Twitter for belittling Himaโ€™s achievement with that ridiculous addition to their congratulatory tweet.

Bombarded by furious messages, the AFI eventually posted two tweets to apologize.

โ€œWe apologize to all Indians if they were hurt by one of our tweets. The real intention was to show that our runner is undaunted in any situation โ€“ on the field or off it! Despite coming from a small town, she spoke without hesitation to foreign reporters in English! Once again we apologize to those offended, Jai Hindi!โ€ it wrote in Hindi.

The tweet was welcomed by many.