FOR all the good work of the French to make the 47th Liebherr-World table tennis championship a success, the week-long event, held under the threat of SARS, was marked by a controversy which reeked of political considerations.
The fracas occurred during the men's qualification rounds as Hani Al-Hammadi of Yemen and Nabeel Al-Magahwi of Saudi Arabia forfeited their matches against Israel's Gay Elensky through the first two days of the competition. The Yemeni, in fact, did come up to the table but left immediately when he saw his opponent was an Israeli while the Saudi player never even showed up for his match against Elensky.
The incident sparked a furore as the media was quick to point out that the walk-overs handed in favour of the Israeli was in fact a reflection of the tensions concerning the Middle East. The controversial walk-out of the Yemeni player and the walk-over handed down by Al-Magahwi drew an immediate protest from the Israeli delegation forcing the International Table Tennis Federation to call for an emergency meeting of its disciplinary committee.
The committee, expectedly, found the actions of the two players guilty and the ITTF was quick to accept its recommendation by banning both Hani Al-Hammadi and Nabeel Al-Magahwi from playing in any international event through the rest of the year. "The actions of the players were an unacceptable demonstration and they stand banned for the rest of 2003," an ITTF statement said.
The championships also saw another controversy surfacing when the men's doubles quarterfinal match between the South Korean pair of Kim Taek-Soo and Oh Sang-Eun and the Hong Kong combine of Cheung Yuk and Leung Chu Yun ended midway through with the disqualification of the Hong Kong pair.
The incident occurred at 6-5 during the seventh game between the two sides after a disputed point was awarded to the Korean duo. The decision brought about a protest from the Hong Kong side and as play was held up, an altercation between the Hong Kong coach Chan Kong Wah and referee Bernard Barbier followed. The Hong Kong coach was finally red carded and was forced to leave the playing area. This action against their coach also paved the way for a walk-out by the Hong Kong team and its eventual disqualification.
Hong Kong, later, filed an official protest but the ITTF jury rejected the plea saying that it did not have the power to change "an umpire's decision on a matter of fact."
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