Old video of Indian hurdler winning gold falsely shared as Asian Games triumph
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 10, 2023 at 09:26
- 3 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"We are proud of this historic achievement of yours. A security guard's daughter has hoisted the Indian flag at the Asian Games," reads a Hindi-language Facebook post from September 26.
"Jyothi Yarraji received many congratulations and best wishes for winning the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles. #AsianGames."
The video, which has more than 15,000 views, shows a women's 100-metre hurdles race in which the Indian sprinter takes first place.
The clip was shared in similar Facebook posts here and here. It also surfaced on X, formerly Twitter, alongside the same falsehood.
Comments left under these posts suggest some Indians believed the claim that the video was recorded at the Asian Games.
"India's glory continues in Asian Games, India's daughter wins gold," reads one comment.
Another says: "Andhra Pradesh's daughter Jyothi Yarraji wins gold in the Asian Games, a proud moment for the country," referring to a southern state in India.
While the video does show Jyothi winning her race, the event took place at the Asian Athletics Championships in Thailand in July, not the Asian Games in China.
Dramatic race
The logo of the Asian Athletics Championships can clearly be seen in the background as the sprinters pull away from the starting blocks four seconds into the video. It also flashes across the screen as a graphic at the 57-second mark.
The name of the athletics meeting is displayed on the shirts of competitors at various points in the two-minute and 20-second clip.
A keyword search on Google found the same video was uploaded to X by the Sports Authority of India on July 13, 2023 (archived link).
The caption on this post reads: “@JyothiYarraji bags the 1st (gold medal) for (India) at the ongoing Asian Athletics Championships 2023. The #TOPSchemeAthlete clocked a time of 13.09s in the Women's 100m Hurdles Event."
Below are screenshot comparisons between the video in the false Facebook post (left) and the video from the Sports Authority of India (right):
The result of the race can be found listed here on the official website of the Asian Athletics Championships (archived link). News of Jyothi's win was also widely shared by Indian media in July, including here and here (archived links here and here).
The Asian Games meanwhile kicked off on September 23 in the Chinese city of Hangzhou and finished on October 8. Jyothi took home silver on October 1 after almost being disqualified over an alleged false start.
In a dramatic race, she and Chinese hurdler Wu Yanni were both called for false starts but were allowed to compete after Jyothi protested (archived link).
Wu crossed the line ahead of Jyothi but in a review the false start decision against Wu was upheld, meaning the Chinese athlete was disqualified. Jyothi's medal was consequently upgraded from bronze to silver.
Lin Yuwei of China took gold. The results can be found here on the official web page of the 19th Asian Games (archived link).
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