By JULIEN MERCED C. MATABUENA (Manila Bulletin)
March 12, 2011, 3:44pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Azkals football team is now headed for Ulan Bator, Mongolia after experiencing the magnitude 8.9 quake that struck Sendai City, Japan Friday afternoon.
According to sportswriter Cedelf Tupas’ Twitter account at around 1:45 PM, Saturday, the Azkals are “now in Tokyo, making their way to Narita Airport.”
Earlier at 9:30 AM, he tweeted that the team was “instructed to pack, hoping to make it to Narita in time for 730 pm flight to Beijing then to Ulan Bator.”
An hour later, he followed with “Azkals left Gotemba already. Headed to train station to take bullet train to Tokyo. Then off to Narita to catch flight.” His next tweet, posted another hour after, said that the team already reached Mishima station and “buying bullet train tickets to Tokyo now.”
Tupas also posted that the Azkals might leave at 7:20 PM for Beijing, China via Air China before flying to Ulan Bator.
The Azkals was in Gotemba City for acclimation training in preparation for their second Asian Football Confederation (AFC) prequalifying game vs. the Mongolian football team to be held on March 15.
According to a report aired by TV Patrol on Friday, they were in the middle of the second practice game against the Kanto Gakuin University football team when the earthquake shook Sendai.
Reuters reported that the US Geological Society estimated the epicenter to be at 130 kms. east of Sendai in Honshu, off-shore, at a depth of 24 kms. With Tokyo city as reference point, southern city Gotemba is three hours away while northern city Sendai, two.
“Kinakabahan kahit medyo malayo kami kasi first time namin na makaranas ng gano'n kalakas na lindol. Malakas talaga yun kasi matutumba ka 'pag hindi ka nakahawak eh,” co-captain Chieffy Caligdong relayed via phone interview.
On the other hand, striker Roel Gener said “Huwag na po sila [mga pamilya] mag-alala. Ok naman kami dito, yun nga lang malamig.”
Other strikers Phil and James Youghusband, Aly Borromeo, Christopher Camcam, and Anton del Rosario made use of Twitter to inform their friends and family of the situation there and that they’re safe.
“No signal on phones because of the earthquakes. Experienced an earthquake during our game today. Don't know if we will leave tomorrow :(,” Phil reported.
“Everyone is ok guys! Thanks for the concern. Felt earthquake during our game and not sure if we'll be able to fly out tomorrow,” James said.
Team captain Borromeo said, “Thoughts and prayers go out to all the locals here in Japan. Don't worry about the team guys we're all safe over here!” and also mentioned that they felt aftershocks hours after the earthquake.
Goalie Chris Camcam reported that phone lines had been cut where they were and that tsunamis are “all over Japan.”
Azkals defender del Rosario said that there’s “flooding everywhere but we're far from it” and that he hopes “Japan will overcome this dreadful disaster.”
Their team manager Dan Palami also assured everyone via Twitter that the Azkals “felt the tremors but otherwise okay.”
More, the TV Patrol report mentioned that Azkals strikers Simon Greatwich and Jason Sabio, both coming from the US but through separate flights, were supposed to join the team in flying out of Tokyo to Ulan Bator today.
However, the quake caused the airports in Japan to close down until this morning so Sabio was stranded in Narita Airport in Tokyo while Greatwich in Osaka from yesterday afternoon up to today. According to Sabio’s and Greatwich’s Twitter account as of this writing, Greatwich will instead be flying to Ulan Bator via Seoul, South Korea while Sabio will head to Beijing first before finally getting on another flight to Ulan Bator.
Meanwhile, the Azkals bowed down to the Kanto Gakuin University team in the friendly games held on Tuesday and Friday, 0-4 and 1-8, respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment