Photo: ITTF

The International Table Tennis Federation （ITTF） said on Sunday it strongly opposes any form of racism and will prevent such kind of incidents from happening again after some media reports said someone shouted "yellow banana" earlier during a round of men's singles at the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston, the US. 

The fourth round of men's singles between China's Liang Jingkun and England's Liam Pitchford at the 2021 World Table Tennis Championships took place on Saturday in Huston. However, there was an unexpected cacophony from the stands, with someone shouting "yellow banana," a suspected racist insult to the Chinese player, according to media reports. 

The ITTF said in a statement on Sunday night that it won't tolerate any racist behavior and it has been working closely with the local organizing committee to prevent any racist incidents from happening again at the games. 

Throughout the game, the two players had a fierce competition and chased each other in the score. When the score was 8-4 in the tiebreaker, Pitchford, who had just won a goal, motioned to the referee that he wanted to rest. As he was resting, he ate a banana which was handed to him. Meanwhile, Liang was communicating with his coach during the short break.

All of a sudden, a man, who spoke in English, heckled loudly from the stands, "yellow banana, yellow!" The man shouted louder and louder and led several people to echo around in succession, shouting for a while before they stopped.

Although it looked as if the man was saying that Pitchford was eating a banana, given that the word "banana" is an insult to the yellow race in English slang, and based on the actual circumstances, it is also reasonable to suspect that he was actually making a racist insult against Liang.

Without the clear video from the scene, it is currently not possible to confirm the identity and motivation of that person, or whether it was an organized, premeditated behavior. Liang, who was talking to his coach at the time of the unpleasant episode, seems to not have been affected and finally won the competition.

However, this is not the first time that racism and harassment have been directed at Chinese athletes. The Chinese Table Tennis Association has already made a complaint to the ITTF.

Global Times