Fears for Haiti's Olympic team; seven reported dead

AT least seven athletes and officials who represented Haiti at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing have lost their lives in the earthquake that hit the Caribbean island one week ago.

PROUD: Judoka Joel Brutus carries the Haiti flag during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is reported seven members of the team - both athletes and officials - have lost their lives in the recent earthquake, although there is no news on their identities (Getty Images)

Luis Mejia, president of the national Olympic Committee in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, claimed he'd been told the news by his counterpart in Haiti, Jean Edward Baker.

Haiti competed in three sports in Beijing - athletics, judo and boxing - while their flag was carried by judoka Joel Brutus, one of the tiny nation's most successful athletes and a double medal winner at the Pan-Am Games.

There is no information on the identities of those who have lost their lives while the headquarters of Haiti's national football association reportedly collapsed in the quake, which killed more than 200,000 and left an estimated 1.5 million people homeless.

However, in the chaos the Olympic Committees of both Haiti and the Dominican Republic are combining to aid the relief effort.

They have organised the single biggest aid delivery project from a warehouse in the beleagured capital of Port-au-Prince.

According to Sky News they have fed 40,000 people a day since last Wednesday - without any western assistance.

"I have sat in meetings from eight in the morning until the afternoon with them talking and doing nothing," said Alain Saint-Pierre, the general secretary of Haiti's Olympic committee.

"The bureaucracy is terrible. They have talked for days and still they don't move. Sitting on the runway is pointless."

* To donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee's Haiti appeal click here.

Donations to the DEC Haiti appeal can be made by calling 0370 60 60 900 or over the counter at any post office or high street bank, quoting Freepay 1449. 

Cheques payable to DEC Haiti Earthquake can also been sent to PO Box 999, London, EC3A 3AA.

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