A Brazilian female reporter covering the World Cup has been widely praised after rebuking a football fan who attempted to kiss her while she was preparing to go live on television.
Julia Guimaraes was broadcasting from outside the Ekaterinburg Arena ahead of the Group H clash on Sunday between Japan and Senegal.
Footage of the incident has been released by Brazilian channel SporTV, in which Guimaraes dodges the man’s approach and berates him for his unacceptable actions.
Camera technicians captured the incident, as well as Guimaraes’ reaction that led to the fan apologising while the cameras were still rolling.
"Don't do this," she shouted as he tried to walk away. "Never do this again, OK?”
From off-camera, the man could be heard replying: “I'm sorry, sorry, OK, OK.”
Guimaraes, who has said that she believes the man was Russian, added: "I don't allow you to do that, never. OK? This is not polite. This is not right.
"Never do this. Never do this to a woman, OK? Respect."
The video was posted on social media and quickly went viral, not due to what happened but because of her brilliant reaction – which drew plenty of praise from Twitter users around the world.
Quote-tweeting the post, Guimaraes explained that it’s not even the first time that something like this has happened since she arrived in Russia. “It's hard to find words,” she wrote. “Luckily, I never experienced this in Brazil! Here, it's happened twice already. Sad! Shameful!"
She added when speaking to Globo Esporte: "I'm experiencing it a lot in Russia... which obviously I do not understand, but I feel. And it's the second time something physical has happened, with a guy trying to kiss me.
"It's awful. I feel helpless, vulnerable. This time I gave an answer, but it's sad, people do not understand.
"I wanted to understand why he thinks he has a right to do that."
A previous incident involving Julieth Gonzalez Theran, a journalist working for the Spanish language division of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), emerged last week in which she was kissed and groped by a man while recording a live segment.
The incidents come when the role of female’s in sport, particularly at the World Cup, is being given more attention as the presence of females in television roles continues to increase at the tournament. On Monday, former Chelsea and Tottenham football Jason Cundy apologised after making offensive remarks on Good Morning Britain when he claimed that women’s voices were “too high-pitched” for football commentary, leading to stinging criticism of the Talksport radio presenter.
