Speed Glue Banned Part 2
| ITTF President Adham Sharara has released a further announcement regarding the decision by the ITTF Board of Directors to ban glues containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In a statement that raises as many questions as it answers, the ITTF have will continue with their existing testing protocol (allowing certain amounts of VOCs in rackets), unless another severe health incident occurs, in which case zero tolerance testing will be invoked.
The final line of the statement says that "The ITTF urges all parties involved, players, national associations, continental associations, manufacturers, and parents to act accordingly." Well, that should do the trick, shouldn't it? I mean, no one will do the wrong thing and actually USE these more effective speed glues that contain VOCs, will they? Gee, why do we even need to starting testing in 1st September 2008 - no one cheats at table tennis, do they? Heck, get rid of the referees and umpires and allow the players to umpire themselves! One small question I'd like to ask though - if the ITTF is willing and able to implement zero-tolerance testing if another health incident occurs, why the hold up? Is it the extra money involved in getting the testing up and running faster? Are table tennis players going to be able to use illegal speed glue containing health hazardous VOCs simply because the ITTF wants to save a few bucks? I urge the ITTF to act like the governing organization it is supposed to be, and either explain why it isn't feasible to starting testing for banned substances immediately, or get off its backside and start doing the tests. Or will any title won by players between now and 1st September 2008 have the dreaded asterix next to their name, indicating possible use of illegal glue? |
|
| Don't Use, Don't Tell? Photo © 2006 Greg Letts, licensed to About.com, Inc. |
Comments
Re-read the announcements. There is no language that says the glues are banned. They only say that they withdrew ITTF approval. But ITTF approval is not required for adhesives like it is for rubbers. If it were required, then even non-VOC glues would also be illegal since the ITTF withdrew approval for ALL glues.
It is smoke and mirrors. The rules prohibit them from making the remaining allowed VOCs illegal without an appropriate time interval. The announcement reads as it does because they are trying to appear to be banning VOCs when in fact, they either can’t, or would have to take extraordinary measures to do so.
More here:
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-tabletennis&tid=24820