Sport

Haiti has scored a first for its struggling tourism industry. It will host the first-ever pro-am mountain-bike race to be viewed on U.S. television, with sponsorship by Pepsi Max. The event called Mountain Bike (MT) Ayiti will challenge participants in a 65-mile race. It will include an 8,000 foot ascent up to La Visite National Park on the first day of the race.

Travelcology, another sponsor, is collaborating with Haiti's Ministry of Tourism (MOT) to promote breath-taking mountain trails in virgin land never before accessed by visitors. Upon reaching La Visite National Park, bike-racers will view its un-touched forest, before making the descent towards Marigot.

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Haiti has a national soccer team, the Haiti National Football Team (HNFT). The Fédération Haïtienne de Football is the governing corpus responsible for ensuring HNFT follows CONCACAF rules to compete against other leagues in the Caribbean. The Haiti National Football Team plays all home games at Stade Sylvio Cator in Port-au-Prince, coached by Israel Blake Cantero, an ex-soccer champ.

The HNFT has a history of longevity since the 60s, qualifying for the World Cup (WC) early on, playing in it in 1974. Although they did not win, they played an excellent game against very tough competitors, the Italians. The HNFT reached the qualifying rounds again in '78 and '82 but did not succeed in participating in the WC.

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Haiti's national soccer team, the Haiti National Football team (HNFT) has been competing since the 1960s in CONCACAF. Making the cut for the World Cup in 1974, they played against fierce competitors, the Italians.

Although they did not win, they made an impression with star player, Emmanuel Sanon, making the opening winning goal. In 1974 Antoine Tassy coached the HNFT with a roster of 22 players.

Here is the list of 1974 World Cup Haitian players in picture

Here is the list of players:

Henry Francillon, Goalkeeper - DOB: May 25, 1946 - Club: Victory Club Port-au-Prince

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The first stone for the construction of a multi-sport facility at Côtes-de-Fer was laid Friday by René Jean Roosevelt the outgoing minister for Youth, Sports and Civic Action.

The new sports field to be developed will accommodate Basketball, handball and Volleyball.

The launch at Côtes-de-Fer comes at a time when the ministry continues with the establishment of a network of sports facilities in the territory. The Ministry is out to promote youth involvement in sports and help in the physical, spiritual and mental growth of the country's young generation.

The new facility will include a 90 square- meter podium to be used for social and cultural activities. There will be bleachers of a 600 person capacity and 100 square-meter locker rooms. The playing surface is planned to be half foot in thickness.

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There is no stopping the men's national football team from going up the FIFA World Rankings. According to the latest rankings, Haiti jumped a spot to 38th place, the highest position it has held in history. This improvement marked another feat for the national squad as it also rose by 18 places in the December rankings. It is now ahead of Zambia and one place behind Serbia.

FIFA attributed Haiti's improving record to its stellar performance at the Caribbean Cup. Though it did not take home the title, Haiti still qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Cuba won the Caribbean Cup but Les Grenadiers will continue to launch its campaign at the CONCACAF, which will kick off in July in the United States. Other teams that will figure in the tournament include Mexico, Martinique, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada.

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Despite his defeat (0-1) against the St. Louis Association North (ASSL) on 23 December,

The Old Lion is back into first division. Even though they lost to the team l'Association Saint-Louis du Nord (ASSL) in December 23, 2012, they are still qualified for first division.

A final so many have been waiting for, a meeting between Racing and Violette would make it very profitable to the clubs. However, this is not to be. Due to an overall poor performance in this season, Violette has moved into second Division.

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The plans for a new national soccer stadium in Haiti, the Phoenix Stadium, is moving ahead and this is what the new stadium will look like when work is complete.

The project to build a new soccer stadium in Haiti has been in the making following the 2012 earthquake. Two principal actor in trying to give Haiti its first National soccer stadium are Boby Duval who is the founder and director of the Cité Soleil nonprofit L'Athlétique d'Haïti.

Based on the plan, the new Haiti National Soccer Stadium will include 12,000 seats. The Phoenix Stadium in Haiti will also include academy and community garden.

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The Haiti Ministry of Tourism is jumping on every opportunity to promote the island to a wider public. As such, it will host its first international biking race in June. To be televised in the U.S., it will show racing pros winding through high-mountain terrain, and resting in secreted, virgin forestlands, to promote eco-tourism. In another approach to promote Haiti as the place to visit for international sporting events, it is holding the first figure-skating show "Haiti on Ice" at Sylvio Cator Stadium this spring.

Minister of Tourism, Stephanie Villedrouin, and Acting Minister of Culture, Josette Darguste, have contracted with Super Canal Productions to televise the event in the U.S. In alliance with the Ministries of Tourism and Culture, the government of Haiti (GOH) has made it policy to fund these international events, aware Haiti needs to project a positive image to the world. President Martelly and Prime Minister Lamothe also understand showing Haiti as having the capacity to hold these highly-publicized sporting events will attract convention business as well.

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Three years ago, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake pummeled Haiti. The reconstruction of a country with a perennial place on the index of failed states has been overwhelming to contemplate. But in spite of this, Haiti is about to receive its first-ever national soccer stadium.

Private investor Morad Fareed, once a player for the Palestinian soccer team and a New York property developer, has partnered with Boby Duval, also an ex-soccer player in Haiti. Duval established and runs L'Athlétique d'Haiti, a Cité Soleil not-for-profit organization. The partners have hired architect Carlos Zapata to design and build the 12,000-seat Phoenix Stadium. The stadium site will also house a private academy and public garden.

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Former basketball player with the Yonkers, Jim Boistic, has shown his interest to promote basketball games in Haiti. He said that he had met with the former US president, Bill Clinton and discussed how they would help in promoting the athletics teams in Haiti. The Yonkers icon said that his first time interest over Haiti was when the great earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. At that time he was aiming to rebuild a Christian academy which had been struck by earthquake which was owned by the Christ army tabernacle.

Jim Boistic's recent visit to Haiti since the time of earthquake came some few days back with another program which aimed at reviving Haiti National Basketball. The program is scheduled to last for four days beginning on June 25-29. He held several basketball clinics at the Quisqueya Christian School where he taught some basics in coaching and playing. He said that his aim was to train and have young talented players who would revive the hope of Haiti. He also said that his goal was also to give the youths the right tools which are essential for making them successful in life. However, the program has to take about two years before it reached its full completion.

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