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Table tennis chief adamant on glue ban

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-05-24 08:31

ZAGREB - World table tennis chief Adham Sharara has decided to sweep speed glues off the table once for all.

Solvent-based speed glue, which increases speed and spin but is reportedly hazardous to health, will be banned from September 1, 2007 if the International Table Tennis Federation's general meeting voted in favor of the ban on Friday.

"As an ITTF President, it's my responsibility to protect players ' health," said Sharara on the sideline of the ongoing world table tennis championships.

Water-based glue, will replace speed glue which has been widely used by players in the past decade or more.

The ITTF decided to ban the speed glue in 2004 but the ban was postponed several times because players and table tennis equipment manufacturers were not ready.

In 2006, the ITTF set the start of the ban on September 1, 2008 when the Beijing Olympic ends.

But one incident changed it all.

Three weeks ago, a middle age Japanese participant in a domestic table tennis tournament, who is a regular user of speed glue, passed out while re-gluing his rubber. He had been hospitalized for over two weeks including six days in coma.

Sharara said he will prevent the incident from happening again even the glue ban means the level of table tennis is sent back to 1988.

"One case is a big warning, a new case will be a disaster," said Sharara.

The ITTF chief said he is not worried about adaptability of players.

"Timo Boll (German player) might top-spin into the net (by using new glue). But will he keep top-spinning into the net after three months (of practice)? They will adjust to new glue," Sharara said.