BERLIN, 28 December 2004 — Several international sportsmen had a lucky escape from Sunday’s massive earthquake-triggered tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Former Swedish ski star Ingemar Stenmark, who was holidaying with his girlfriend, was surprised by the waves in Khok Koli, some 50 kilometers north of the Thai tourist island of Phuket.

The mother of the two-times Olympic champion said that her son managed to avoid being swept away by running to a higher area, thus avoiding the water. The father of his girlfriend however, was caught by a wave, but managed to crawl to safety.

Others caught in the tragedy were German-based Bosnian international footballer Hasan Salihamidzic, as well as Austrian tennis star Thomas Muster, who were both on holiday in the Maldives.

The flood swept over Muster’s bungalow and swept away the stairs. “I heard a huge bang,” Muster said.

Salihamidzic’s club, Bayern Munich, said that the player was well and had only suffered a scare. “He is to fly back to Europe on Monday.”

Former Italian football captain Paolo Maldini was about to return to Italy when a huge wave hit the airport in Male. “I saw only the end of a wave. The runway was under water, but everything was very quiet at the airport. Possibly it was the quietest place in Male. We did not even have time to be scared,” he said.

Maldini’s teammate Filippo Inzaghi was less lucky, as he was stuck on the Maldives. He told Italian media that he and 300 other tourists were sitting in a hotel lobby waiting to be evacuated.

Juventus’ Gianluca Zambrotta, who returned to Italy on the same flight as Maldini, said that he had at first not realized what was happening. “We sat for a few hours in the flooded airport, but only saw what was happening on TV.”

Meanwhile, the tennis tournament scheduled this week for Chennai in India, is to go ahead, the professional organization, ATP, said on Monday. Neither the 5,800-seater Nuggambakkam-Stadium, nor the hotel for the players had been affected, the organization said. Sri Lanka’s cricket team that is currently touring New Zealand, on Monday decided to continue with their tour, however only after a five-day period of mourning. The game scheduled for Wednesday in Napier was postponed till mid-January.

“At the moment we are not thinking of cricket,” team manager Brendon Kuruppu said.

The planned tour of Sri Lanka’s junior cricket team to Pakistan however, was cancelled following the tragedy.