He said: “Our five swimmers will be meeting with the embassy on Monday and I am really hoping they can get the passports and travel, probably arrive here on Wednesday and head direct to the pools."

"For us, it is very important to be taking part in these championships, which are our first. That is why it is almost heartbreaking to imagine the athletes not getting their visas.”

Haiti obtained FINA affiliation in March and the third FINA World Aquatics Convention is their delegation's first such event.


ASHANASA President Evenel Mervilus alongside coach Edson JN Pierre
Photo credit - Timothy Olobulu

ASHANASA was revived two years ago after several years of inactivity and, with FINA affiliation, hopes to make swimming one of the biggest sporting events in their country, the second largest Caribbean country.

Mervilus added: “It is exciting to be here, we have been longing for this for a long time and being in Doha, exchanging ideas and getting to network with federations that have been there and done great things is priceless for us.

“Probably I will not be too ambitious and say we have come here to compete with the rest and win medals.

"Our swimmers are not quite experienced and this will be their first big event so the most important thing for us is to pick up the experience.”

Despite being an island nation with a 10.7m population, Mervilus pointed out that less than one per cent could swim - a statistic he and his federation intend to change.

He said: “Despite being an island that uses boats for our transport, most of our nationals do not know how to swim.

"We aim at creating a rescue team by entrenching swimming deeper into our culture and hopefully, develop the best swimmers in the world while at it. For us, swimming is not only a sport but a necessity and we want to make it the biggest sport in Haiti.

“Our biggest ailment at the moment is the lack of facilities; we only have one 50m pool of international status, but it is not even working at the moment so the swimmers are left to train in rivers and in the sea.

"We are building up a huge swimming complex and we hope it will be supportive to our course.

“We are focusing on schools and universities because imparting the swimming knowledge at an early age is very vital.”

ASHANASA coach Edson JN Pierre opines his aim is to build swimmers’ career across Haiti and in the long run produce world beaters.

He said: "There is a lot of work to do because first we need to instil the swimming culture in the people. I am positive we will be able to produce some of the best in the world in the years to come, but we really need to fold our sleeves and get to work.

"The association has arranged several programs for our swimmers to gain experience like competing with some of the best of our neighbours and in the long run, we will produce a good breed and put Haiti on the world map."