Two-time Olympian Dylan Carter swam to his second individual gold medal and T&T’s fourth medal overall when he repeated as champion of the men’s 50 metres butterfly A-final at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, continued in Santo Domingo, El Salvador, on Tuesday.
The race was originally carded for Monday night but due to bad weather was postponed until midday Tuesday.
However, the delay played no negative effect on the T&T swimming ace as he stormed to victory in a new Games record time of 23.32 seconds, to lower his gold medal-winning time of 23.50 in Barranquilla, Colombia, five years ago.
Aruban Mikel Schreuders took the silver medal in 23.90 while Mexico’s Andres Dupont secured the bronze medal in 24.19.
The other finishers in the gold medal splash were Venezuela’s Jorge Otaiza (24.21), Mexico’s Jorge Iga (24.40), St Lucian Jayhan Odlum-Smith (24.71), Cuba’s Enrique Gonzalez (24.72) and Colombian Esnaider Reales in 24.74.
On Monday morning, when the heats swam off, Carter won the fourth and final heat in 24.04 to be the second fastest qualifier overall, with Dupont second in the heat in 24.30 and Bahamian Lamar Taylor, third in 24.96.
Schreuders won heat two in the top qualification time of 23.88 while Reales was second in 24.62 to secure the eighth and final spot in the A-final with Venezuelan Perez, third in 24.97 and qualifying for the B-final.
In heat three, Otaiza raced home in 24.16 followed by Iga in 24.34, Gonzales of Cuba in 24.42, and Odlum-Smith in 24.58, the seventh-best overall, while T&T’s Zarek Wilson was fifth in 24.88 for the ninth spot and just shy of a spot in the gold medal splash to qualify to the B-final.
In the B-final, Wilson finished third in 25.21 to trail Taylor (24.23) and Perez (24.92).
On Saturday, Carter won gold in the men’s s 100m freestyle in a new meet record of 48.49 seconds to keep hold of his title while also bettering his 2018 winning time of 48.95 from Barranquilla, Colombia.
And on Sunday night, the 4x100m men’s freestyle relay quartet of Carter, Graham Chatoor, Nikoli Blackman and Wilson picked up bronze in three minutes and 22.33 seconds, a new national record, to also repeat the feat of five years ago in Colombia when the T&T quartet of Carter, Jabari Baptiste, David Mc Leod and Joshua Romany clocked 3:23.83.
Nigel Paul, 34, earned T&T’s other medal, a bronze when he was beaten in his men’s s +92 kg semifinal by Cuban Fernando Arzola 5-0 at the El Salvador Ministry of Foreign Affairs Complex on Monday.
Also on Tuesday morning, Chatoor and Blackman qualified for the 400m freestyle A-final to be contested later on.
In the morning heats, Chatoor topped heat three in 4:05.82 followed by Honduran Diego Dulieu (4:05.90 mins), Colombian Juan Morales (4:06.05), Blackman (4:06.37) and Puerto Rico’s Christian Bayo (4:06.60) as the quintet all advanced to the final.
Mexico’s Jose Cano topped heat two in 3:59.05, the only swimmer to go under the four minutes mark to be the top qualifier while Colombian Sebastian Camacho (4:06.98) and Cuban Rodolfo Falcon (4:07.13) also qualified from the heat.
Newman-Achee sixth in women’s Gymnastic
Annalise Newman-Achee had an impressive sixth-placed finish in the Women’s All-Round Gymnastics with a total score of 48.750 from her four disciplines.
This is after Newman-Achee scored 12.850 on the vault, 12.350 on the uneven bars, 12.250 on the balance beam and 11.300 on the floor exercise.
Panama’s Karla Navas won gold with a score of 50.500 while Mexico’s Alexa Moreno took silver with 49.650, and Panama’s Hillary Soto, the bronze with 49.450. Mexican Natalia Escalera (49.400), and Venezuelan Deborah Salmina (48.950) also finished ahead of Newman-Achee.
Last night, Newman-Achee went after individual glory in the eight-athlete women’s uneven bar finals, while she is one of three reserves for the women’s balance beam finals from 7.55 pm tonight
