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AFI apologizes for Hima Das tweet, refuses to delete

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 02:16 PM

AFI apologizes for Hima Das tweet, refuses to delete

New Delhi, July 14: The Athletics Federation of India that was criticised on Twitter for commenting on the not-so-fluent English of athlete Hima Das, has made an apology but refused to inscribe 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 9 pm 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 shattered 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 level best."

The athlete from the state of Assam showed much more grace and sense when she replied:

"My English is not that good, maybe just 40 percent fine by the typical norm. There is nothing wrong with it and I haven't felt bad at all."