Carom
MÖNCHENGLADBACH - He returned from Japan yesterday, along with Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu, after a long flight and especially with the memory of a precarious adventure. Dani Sánchez cann't stop talking about the nightmare. At the moment of the Japanese earthquake, last week, he and Tasdemir were in the Tokyo subway, underway from downtown to the hall where they played a tournament for the Yasmani Cup.
,,Suddenly the earth began to move, we were shaking all the way for three minutes, it seemed like the subway would fall on his side'', Dani tells in his hotel in Mönchengladbach, where he prepars for the World championship for teams in Viersen. Dani Sánchez, Tayfun Tasdemir and Murat Naci Coklu, who was in his hotel in Tokyo during the quake, were shocked.
,,For several minutes there was a huge panic in the subway'', says Sánchez. ,,People were terrified, children were screaming, I myself feared for my life of course. I had three minutes to think about everything that has happened in my life, it was a horrible feeling. We were all the time on the ground and we could not move. It was a terrible experience.''
He and Tayfun travelled to the city that afternoon. Tokyo is 400 km away from the epicenter of the earthquake. Sánchez: ,,When we walked into town, I got cold, I felt not so good, so we decided to go back to the hall where the tournament was played. The earthquake was at 15.00 Japanese time, we had just stepped into the crowded subway.''
The spectre is still there, when he things at that terrible moment. The Spaniard nevertheless won the Yamani tournament with an average of 1.990, before Tasdemir, Sung Won Choi, Coklu and Lee Chun Book. Kouji Funaki, who normaly lives in the disaster area, also played for the cup and so was in Tokyo.
The World championship in Viersen is not in danger for the two Japanese players. Ryuji Umeda and Youichirou Mori arrive tomorrow, one day before the tournament starts.
The tournament will be played with one substitute, because Bolivia will not participat. The Dutch B- team, with Jean van Erp and Ad Broeders, completes the field of 24 countries.