Gambhir, Laxman caught by fake news after Asha Bhosle mistakenly congratulates Indian athlete on Asian Games gold
Bhosle shared a video of an Indian athlete winning gold which instantly went viral on social media, however it was a two-month old video from a separate event.
If social media has served as a better platform for communication across the globe, it also also turned out to be a platform of wrong information. We have often been warned of it through advertisements or through peers, yet people have fallen victim it fake information or news. On Tuesday, legendary India singer Asha Bhosle incurred a similar fate, one which former India cricketer Virender Sehwag had faced almost a year back. Amid India's riveting campaign in China for the 2023 Asian Games, Bhosle shared a video of an Indian athlete winning gold which instantly went viral on social media, however, the athlete, Jyothi Yarraji, had bagged it more than two months back in a completely separate competition.
Bhosle shared the video of the 100m hurdles race where Yarraji had won, as she congratulated the athlete for winning gold in Asian Games. But the athlete had won the event back in July 14 this year in the Asian Athletics Championships. It was the Yarraji's maiden finish at the top of the podium in a major international event. The 23-year-old, who holds the national record of 12.82 seconds and had won a gold in the National Inter-State Championships in June, had in fact claimed India's first gold medal in the event after she clocked 13.09 seconds to win the 100m hurdles final race ahead of two Japanese runners Terada Asuka (13.13s) and Aoki Masumi (13.26s) on a rain-drenched track at the Supachalasai Stadium.
“Heartiest congratulations to Yaraaji from Andhra Pradesh for winning the Gold for 100mts hurdles at the Asian Games,” posted Bhosle as the video went viral with many others congratulating the athlete.
Cricket legend VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir too fell victim to false information. Laxman did mention the correct event, unlike Gambhir, but the timing of their posts indicates that the former India cricketer felt Yarraji claimed the gold medal on Tuesday morning. Sharing the same video as Bhosle, Laxman captioned it: “Where there is a will, There is a Way. Father a Security Guard and Mother a sweeper. India’s first Women’s Gold medal at Asian Athletics Championship in 100mtr hurdles, Meet Yaraaji from Andhra. Great show!!!! Congratulations!”
Yarraji will in fact be in action at the Asian Games in Hangzhou later this month as she will be competing in 100m hurdles and the 200m event. She will be among the favourites for the gold in the 100m event in Asiad.
Back in July 2022, Sehwag had mistakenly celebrated sprinter Hima Das' 400m gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, however the video he had shared was that of the athlete winning the 400m at the U-20 athletics World Championships in Tampere, Finland in 2018, when she became the first Indian to win that title. The 43-year-old was later forced to delete the video after being called out.
