Fresh off topping the overall Aquatic Sports Association of T&T (ASATT) Carifta 5k Open Water Qualifiers held at Las Cuevas Beach, North Coast, Trinidad, on Sunday, Fatima College's Nikoli Blackman will be the main attraction when the ASATT National Long Course Age-Group Swimming Championship splashes off Wednesday at the National Aquatic Centre, in Balmain, Couva until Sunday.
The swim meet will begin at 6 pm from Wednesday until Friday, while Saturday and Sunday will feature two sessions on each day, first from 9 am to 12 noon, then from 5.30 pm.
The meet is the final one available to local swimmers who are hoping to make the national team for this year’s Carifta (Beach Water Polo, Artistic Swimming, Swimming, and Open Water) Championships which takes place in Curacao from April 6-12.
Blackman has already achieved the qualification standard in 15 events for the Carifta Championships along with fellow national swimmers Tyla Ho-A-Shu, Darren Belfon, Taylor Marchan, Amari Ash, Zachary Anthony, Aimee Le Blanc, Liam Carrington who have also attained qualification marks will look to improve on their times.
The USA-based duo of Liam Roberts, the son of the former national swimmer and coach Shastri Roberts, as well as Zarek Wilson have also achieved qualification marks.
Carter, Thompson to start the season at Couva
In addition to the Carifta team hopefuls, top T&T swimmers and Olympians, Dylan Carter, and Cherelle Thompson will both compete over the five days as well.
It will be the 26-year-old Carter's first competitive swim since he concluded his 2022 international season with a bronze medal finish in the men’s 50 metres freestyle final at the FINA World Short Course (SC) Swimming Championships at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre in Australia in December.
Carter earned his third-ever medal and second bronze at a World Short Course (SC) Swimming Championships when he touched the wall in 20.72 seconds, just 0.02 off the national record he established in the preliminary round heats.
Cayman Islands’ Jordan Crooks won his country’s first-ever medal when he won gold in 20.46, holding off defending 2021 world champion Ben Proud by 0.03 seconds.
In his other two events in Australia, Carter was sixth in the men’s 50m butterfly final in 22.14, while he placed seventh in the 50m backstroke in 23.12.
Prior to competing in Australia, 15-time FINA medalist Carter was crowned the 2022 FINA World Cup men’s overall champion after he swept all nine gold medals at stake in sweeping the three legs of the 50m butterfly, 50m freestyle, and 50m backstroke events at the FINA World Cup Swimming Series in Berlin, Germany; Toronto, Canada, and Indianapolis, USA.
A University of Southern California graduate, Carter was the overall top-ranked swimmer at the end of the series with 172.6 points to narrowly prevail over USA’s Nick Fink (172.3).
Going three-for-three at all three stops helped distance Carter and Fink from the rest of the men’s field with South African Chad Le Clos (166.3) ending in the third spot.
A Commonwealth Games silver medal winner in the 50m butterfly, as well, Carter on three separate occasions just missed out on podium finishes in international events.
At the FINA World Aquatics Championships in June in Budapest, Hungary, Carter missed the podium in the 50m butterfly by just .06 seconds, while a month later the Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham, England, he was .01 seconds away from a bronze medal in the 50m butterfly and .08 seconds from hardware in the 50m freestyle, also in England, all ending in fourth-placed finishes.