Two-time Olympian Dy­lan Carter se­cured this coun­try’s first gold medal in the men’s 100 me­tres freestyle A-fi­nal at the 2023 Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly be­hind held in El Sal­vador, and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic on Sat­ur­day night.

Com­pet­ing at the Mer­liot Aquat­ic Com­plex, in San Sal­vador, El Sal­vador, last night, the 27-year-old suc­cess­ful­ly re­tained his men’s 100 me­ters freestyle, which he first won four years ago in Bar­ran­quil­la, Colom­bia in a record time of 48.95 sec­onds, when he again outswam the eight-man field and low­ered the record time with a scin­til­lat­ing 48.49 sec­onds, af­ter a first 50m split of 23.11 sec­onds.

A dis­tant sec­ond in the fi­nal was Aru­ba Mikel Schreud­ers in 49.17 while Mex­i­co’s Jorge Ida took bronze in 49.38 fol­lowed by his coun­try­man An­dres Dupont, the on­ly oth­er man un­der the 50 sec­onds bar­ri­er, in 49.52.

The oth­er fin­ish­ers in the fi­nal were Je­sus Lopez of Venezuela in 50.19, T&T’s Nikoli Black­man, sixth in 50.29, Ba­hami­an Lamar Tay­lor sev­enth in 50.38, and Emil Perez of Venezuela, eighth in 50.62.

In the morn­ing heats Carter was the sec­ond fastest in the fifth and fi­nal heat in 50.37 sec­onds, to trail Dupont who won in 49.56 with Perez, third in 50.69.

Black­man, who turned 18 years old on Thurs­day was al­so sec­ond home in heat in 50.21 to fin­ish be­hind Schreud­ers who touched the wall in 49.87 with Colom­bian, San­ti­a­go Artea­ga, third in 51.14 but the ninth fastest over­all to qual­i­fy as the top swim­mer for the B-fi­nal.

And in heat three, Iga won in a top qual­i­fi­ca­tion mark of 48.98, with Lopez, sec­ond in 50.05 to book his spot in the gold medal splash.

<Beach Vol­ley­ball>

At the Cos­ta Del Sol, the T&T women’s team of Ap­phia Glas­gow, and La Teisha Joseph bat­tled past US Vir­gin Is­lands’ Am­ber Ben­nett, and Cristi­na Al­me­dia 21-18, 21-19 in their ninth to 16th semi­fi­nal.

Next up for the T&T women is a meet­ing with Colom­bians Ana Bel­tran and Yaleni Moreno in their ninth to 12th semi­fi­nal from 10 am af­ter the South Amer­i­cans de­feat­ed Cay­man Is­lands’ Chlouie Gae­tos, and Dea­jra Tul­loch 21-5, 21-5 in their ninth to 16th play­off.

<Ta­ble Ten­nis>

Chung ad­vances to women’s Sin­gles last-16

France-based Rheann Chung was the lone T&T play­er in the win­ners’ row in her round-of-32 con­test to ad­vance to Mon­day’s last-16 of the women’s Sin­gles com­pe­ti­tion where she will face Cuban Daniela Fon­se­ca from noon.

This af­ter Chung, bat­tled past Venezue­lan Mar­i­an­gel Di­az 11-3, 11-5, 4-11, 7-11, 11-5, 12-10, win­ning the sixth set from 4-9 down, while Fon­se­ca stopped Colom­bian Ana Isaza 7-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-7 in their re­spec­tive last-32 en­coun­ters.

How­ev­er, the T&T men’s trio of USA-based duo, Khaleel As­gar­ali, and Der­ron Dou­glas, along with the top-ranked lo­cal­ly-based Aaron Wil­son all made their men’s Sin­gle ex­it in the round-of-32 yes­ter­day.

As­gar­ali failed in his ef­fort to reach the last-16 af­ter he suf­fered a straight sets loss to Puer­to Ri­co’s Bri­an Afanador 3-11, 5-11, 3-11, 6-11 while Dou­glas was over­whelmed by Cos­ta Ri­can Daniel Araya 11-5, 9-11, 5-11, 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, and Wil­son was oust­ed by Guatemalan Ser­gio Car­ril­lo 11-9, 7-11, 11-3, 12-14, 7-11, 7-11.

On Fri­day night, in the men’s round-of-64 Sin­gles com­pe­ti­tion, As­gar­ali, and Dou­glas won against Guyana’s Christo­pher Franklyn (11-3, 10-12, 11-4, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9) and Nicaraguan Genaro Rous­tan (12-10, 9-11, 8-11, 13-11, 11-2, 11-8) re­spec­tive­ly, while Wil­son dumped Hait­ian Donika St Fleur 15-13, 5-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-5.

But in the oth­er match in­volv­ing a T&T play­er, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Abit Te­ja­da de­feat­ed Dookram 11-8, 11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7.

Chung, a five-time Caribbean women’s sin­gles cham­pi­on out­played Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Yasiris Or­tiz 4-11, 15-13, 11-7, 12-10, 7-11, 11-6 in the round-of-64 open­er.

How­ev­er, Imani Ed­wards-Tay­lor went un­der to Colom­bian Ju­liana Loza­do 6-11, 5-11, 2-11, 3-11; Chloe Fras­er was out­last­ed by Hon­duran Re­bec­ca Ayestas 5-11, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 15-13, 4-11; and Am­bi­ka Sitram was beat­en by El Sal­vadore­an Keren Bolanos, 2-11, 10-12, 6-11, 9-11.

Last night, Chung and Dou­glas won their Mixed Dou­bles last-32 clash ver­sus Cos­ta Ri­cans, Ale­jan­dro Mon­toya, and Sofia Perez re­spec­tive­ly 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 but then tast­ed de­feat against Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Isaac Vi­la and Es­mer­lyn Cas­tro in a hard-fought clash 9-11, 11-8, 10-12, 10-12 in the round-of-16.

T&T’s oth­er duo in the Mixed Dou­bles last-32, Wil­son and Fras­er lost their last-32 bat­tle with Guyana’s Na­tal­ie Cum­mings, and Christo­pher Franklyn 7-11, 12-14, 11-9, 9-11.

To­day, Wil­son and Dou­glas will be hop­ing for much bet­ter re­turns when they come up against Hon­durans, Jose You, and Guiller­mo Munoz in the men’s Dou­bles round-of-16 from 12.30 pm while from 12 noon, in the women’s Dou­bles round-of-16, Chung and Ed­wards-Tay­lor face Guyana’s Chelsea Edghill and Na­tal­ie Cum­mings.

And the na­tion­al women’s rug­by Sev­ens team will get their cam­paign off and run­ning in Group A against Colom­bia from 11 am at the Cuar­tel San Car­los fol­lowed by match­es ver­sus Mex­i­co from 2.24 pm, and Cos­ta Ri­ca to close our round-robin play from 5.04 pm.

<Phillip bows out box­ing at the last-16 hur­dle>

T&T’s pugilist, Don­nel Phillip was stopped in his quest for a medal when he was beat­en 4-1 on point by Ba­hami­an Rashield Williams in their men’s 63.5kg round-of-16 bout at the El Sal­vador Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs Com­plex while Al Jaleel Jokhu came up against Cuban Eris­lan Romero in a 51kg quar­ter­fi­nal af­ter press time last night.