Top Trinidad and Tobago junior swimmer Dylan Carer placed eighth and last in the men’s 50 metres backstroke final at the 4th Fina World Junior Swimming Championships, in Dubai, UAE, yesterday.
But Carter put that disappointment behind him when he qualified for the final of the men’s 50m butterfly, scheduled for this morning (10 a.m. T&T time).
In the 50 back final, Carter splashed to a 26.18 seconds clocking out of lane one.
The event was won by Russia’s Gregory Tarasivich in 25.44 while Carl Louis Schwarz won the silver in 25.76 and Greece’s Michael Kontizas grabbed bronze in 25.90.
Carter, coached by Brazilian-born coach Alex Pussieldi, qualified for the 50 fly final in fifth position with a 24.16 swim, while his teammate Joshua Romany was 13th and failed to advance to the final when he was timed in 24.76.
Earlier, in the preliminaries of the event, Carter stopped the clock at 23.87 seconds to become the second fastest qualifier, 0.06 seconds behind Ryan Coetzee of South Africa. Romany qualified for his first semifinal of the Championships with a 12th-place 24.69 clocking, which was also his personal best in the event.
Carter’s prelim effort not only smashed his own 15-17 national record of 24.53, but obliterated the open record of 24.36 seconds, held by Joshua Mc Leod. Carter’s swim was also 0.26 seconds off the World Juniors Championship record.
Yesterday, he achieved a new national record (15-17) of 25.99 in the 50 back semis.
In other T&T swims, yesterday, Jonathan Ramkissoon produced a personal best 2:30.45 in the men’s 200m breaststroke in his 44th-place finish in the event, Kristin Julien placed 30th in the women’s 50m backstroke in 30.43, and Tyla Martin clocked 4:32.72 in her 27th-place finish in the women’s 400 freestyle.
All five swimmers will take to the pool today—Carter and Romany in the men’s 100m free, Ramkissoon in his pet event, the men’s 50m breaststroke, Julien in the women’s 50 free, and Martin in the women’s 100m butterfly.