TEAM TTO standout swimmer Dylan Carter sprinted to one relay gold, a new national record and a personal best in the same race while earlier finishing fourth in the 50-metre freestyle on the opening day of Match Day five of the International Swimming League (ISL) at the Pieter Van Den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium in Eindhoven, Holland yesterday.
Carter also anchored the London Roar’s B team to fifth in the men’s 4x100m medley relay.
But the 25-year-old was an integral part of the A squad in the earlier relay.
Carter led off the winning effort for the London Roar in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, posting a 46.39 second leg, a new national mark and second which was only behind Energy Standard’s Kliment Kolesnikov (46.24 seconds). But even though the Roar’s second-leg by Zac Incerti (46.87) saw them drop to third position, two strong legs by England international and four-time Tokyo2020 Olympic medallist Duncan Scott (46.09 secs) and fellow four-time Tokyo2020 Olympic medallist, Australian Kyle Chlamers (45.12) pulled them through to the win in three minutes, 04.47 seconds.
LA Current were second in 3:05.38 while DC Trident (3:08.42) and Energy Standard (3:08.59) were a distant third and fourth respectively.
Carter’s 46.39 effort improved on his own 46.56 standard established at the second season of the ISL on November 9, 2020 in Budapest, Hungary.
FINA, the world governing body for aquatics, allows opening legs of relays to count towards international records.
Carter posted a 21.14 second-clocking for the two-lap dash, finishing behind his London Roar team-mate Australian Kyle Chalmers, who won the event in 20.82. Chalmers was narrowly ahead of Energy Standard’s England Olympian Ben Proud (20.84) with LA Current’s Kritisan Gkolomeev grabbing the bronze in 21.06.
The Current’s Apostolos Christou and DC Trident’s Ryan Hoffer (21.32) were joint fifth, with Standard’s Andrey Zhilkin (21.58) and Trident’s Sergey Shevtsov (21.72) rounding out the top eight.
Despite the national record and personal best, Carter is feeling the wear and tear of a prolonged season.
“I felt tired today, I think my 50 free and my final relay leg were both the slowest I’ve been since we’ve arrived here,” Carter explained. “The quick turnaround between matches maybe contributed to that. But I still managed to crank out that PB nevertheless. So it is promising for when I take some more rest, that 45 (seconds for the 100m free) is in the works!”
After this semi-final, Carter and the Roar can enjoy eight days off before the December 3-4 ISL Final.
“And then two weeks to (FINA) World Short Course, that will help,” Carter said.
In the medley relay, Carter produced a 46.12-second freestyle final leg to help his team to a three minute 24.56 second clocking. Germany’s Christian Diener led off in 50.47 (backstroke) followed by Sam Williamson (57.88 - breaststroke) and Vini Lanza (50.09 - butterfly.
The event was won by Energy Standard in 3:21.36 ahead of LA Current (3:23.66) and DC Trident (3:23.81). London Roar’s A Team were fourth in 3;24.16.
At the end of the first day, Carter and his Roar team were in first spot on 280 points, trailed by Standard (264 pts), Current (221.5 pts) and Trident (141.5 pts).
Source: https://trinidadexpress.com
