Your name and your dislike for water doesn't gel, :-)

And on the expatriate issue, I concede your point. Just read as ' a large crowd.' There were a sprinkling of Qatari fans as well, a few whom I personally knew. But swimming is indeed a growing sport and you'll see more local crowd appearing for such events in the future.

Mark my words on that! It's not going to be a total disaster scenario like the one in the football match you mentioned!