T&T swimmer Dylan Carter ended in the cellar spot in the men’s 100 metres butterfly A-final when the TYR Pro Swim Series continued at Indiana University Natatorium, Indianapolis, Indiana on Friday night.
Competing from lane seven of eight, Carter, a former University of Southern California Trojan swimmer, had the third-best reaction time to the starter of 0.63 seconds.
However, at the 50m turning mark of the star-studded final he had faded to the fourth spot in 24.43 seconds to trail Michael Andrew (23.38), Evan Carlson (23.94) and Danny Kovac (24.26).
On the final 50m splash home, Carter slipped further away from the top trio after a split of 28.70, and eventually ended in the eighth spot in 53.13 seconds.
Andrew won in a new meet record of 50.80 to better fellow American Caeleb Dressel’s 2020 mark of 50.92 while Zach Harting improved from seventh at the halfway stage to second in 52.22, just ahead of Kovac who clocked 52.26.
Carlson was fourth home in 52.37 followed by Egyptian Youssef Ramadan (52.51) Kaan Ayar (52.72) and Miles Samchlo, who ended in 52.76.
On Friday morning in the heats, Carter, the recent recipient of the 2020 First Citizen Sports Foundation “Sportsman of the Year” and T&T Olympic Committee, was second to the wall in the sixth and final heats in 52.77 seconds from lane two, and the sixth-fastest qualifier overall.
Carlson won heat six in 52.31 from lane seven for the second-fastest time overall.
The others to reach the final carded were heat five trio - Andrew, who had the top qualifying time of 51.31, Smachlo ( 52.45), with the fourth-fastest qualifier, and Ayar (53.01), while the trio of Harting (52.40), Ramadan (52.64), and Kovac (52.87) qualified from heat four.
On Thursday night, Carter, swimming from lane seven of eight in the 100m freestyle B-final had the joint best reaction to the starter alongside Carter Swift and Cody Bybee of 0.61 seconds.
However, at the halfway mark of the race, the T&T swimmer had faded to the fourth spot with a split of 23.81 seconds to trail the trio of Ali Khalafalla (23.55), Dean Farris (23.67), and House Grant (23.78).
The 24-year-old USA-based Olympic Games-bound Carter had a slow second half of his race with a time of 26.08, the fifth-best to end in a combined time of 49.89 seconds and fourth overall In the eight-man field.
House, who was timed at 25.80 coming home, and Farris (25.91) both touched the wall in 49.58 for a share of the top spot while Hunter Armstrong who had a sizzling 25.67 split on the second half of the race took third in 49.83.
Swift was fifth in 45.90 followed by Khalafalla (50.20), Bybee (50.49), and Oleksii Khnykin who was eighth in 50.58.
The A-final was won by Blake Pieroni in 48.76 ahead of Nathan Adrian (48.91), and Ryan Held (49.21) while Michael Chadwick claimed fourth in 49.22, and Jorge Iga, fifth in 49.23.
In the morning session, Carter swam to a third spot in the sixth of eighth heats for the 14th spot overall.
Competing from lane five, Carter found himself well position in the third spot at the halfway mark in 24.31 seconds to trail Iga (23.77) and Pieroni (23.87).
And on the final 50m, Carter, T&T’s first-ever Commonwealth Games swimming medallist got home in 25.81 for a combined 50.12 seconds and third spot and 14th best overall in the heat to qualify to the B-final.
Pieroni who raced home in 24.91 for a combined time of 48.78 clocked the top qualifying time overall while Iga’s 25.59 second-leg swim combined for a tally of 49.36 and the sixth-best to secure a spot in the A-final.
For the A-final, heat eight winner and Olympic gold medallist Held (49.03) and runner-up Chadwick (49.29) had the second and third best times respectively while the quartet of Martinez (49.31), Adrian (49.36), Apple (49.57) and Becker (49.67) qualified from heat seven as the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth fastest respectively.
......T&T ace to contest 100m backstroke A-final
Yesterday morning, Carter who had a seeded time of 54.03 made sure of ending the four-day meet with a chance of a top-three finish in the 100m backstroke A-final after he won heat four of five to end as the sixth fastest in the heats.
Starting from lane two, Carter was third at the halfway stage in 26.81 behind Alex Gliese (26.60), and Jack Dolan (26.70) after having the joint-fastest reaction time of 0.54, the same as Brendan Burns, Gliese and Nicolas Albiero.
But the T&T ace turned on the burners on the home stretch to finish in 28.42 for a combined time of 55.23, and sixth overall, well clear of Burns (55.66), who qualified in the eighth and final spot for the A-final.
The others in the heat were Gliese (55.72), Paul Le (55.73), Dolan (55.94) and Ziyad Saleem (55.94), while Albiero was seventh in 55.98. Zheng Quah the other listed participant for the head failed to face the starter.
In the final scheduled for last night, Carter and Burns were to be joined by the heat five trio - Hunter Armstrong (54.46), Matt Grevers (54.73), and Dean Farris (54.82) who occupied the top three fastest qualifying times overall; heat three duo, Will Grant (54.86), and Jack Weaver (55.20), and heat two winner, Brett Pinfold, who clocked 55.44.
In April, Carter, a University of Southern California Trojans graduate competed at the third stop of the Pro Swim Series at the Marguerite Aquatics Center, Mission Viejo, California.
In his final event, he finished with a creditable fourth-placed in the men’s 100m freestyle A-Final in 49.51 after he clocked 49.55 in the heats.
He was also third in the men’s 50m freestyle B-final in 22.72 seconds to trail Michael Chadwick who won in 22.52 and Santiago Grassi (22.71) after he placed 12th in the heats in 22.81 seconds.
Carter’s sub-23 clocking bettered his 22.96 he achieved at the three-day 2012 Federation France Swimming International FFN Camille Muffat Golden Tour Meeting De Nice in France in February in the A-Final when he ended in fifth spot as well as his 23.13 preliminary heats time.
And in his other swim, Carter ended in sixth in the men’s 100m butterfly B-Final in 53.34.