Carter 4th in World Juniors final
Dylan Carter again smashed his national age group record in the 100 metres backstroke event on Day Two of the fourth FINA World Junior Swimming Championships yesterday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
But his 55.36-second clocking was only good enough for fourth place. Still, it was more than an impressive for the swimmers, who has been consistent from the preliminaries to the final. He is the first T&T swimmer, though, to reach a World Junior Championships final, and the second fastest in the discipline. Only George Bovell (55.22) has gone faster.
Only a day earlier Carter had smashed the boys’ 15-17 national mark of 56.83 by over a second with his 55.64 preliminaries swim, before he went .01 seconds slower in the semis.
Yesterday, he forsook the 200m freestyle final after posting another national one minute, 49. 39 seconds for the fifth best showing in the preliminaries, to focus on his final and remaining races. Then he splashed his way to a fourth-place finish in the 100m back, just three hundredths of a second off the podium.
The race was won by Greek Apostolos Christou, who finished in a new Championship record 54.87 seconds, while Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys (55.03) was second, and Grigory Tarasevich (55.33) of Russia, third.
T&T’s other swimmers found the going tough yesterday, with Joshua Romany’s 1:55.19 clocking only good enough for 33rd overall in the boys’ 200 free. Tyla Martin also touched the wall in 2:24.15 for 32nd in the girls’ 200 butterfly.
Today Carter, Romany, Martin and Kristin Julien will also be in action on Day Three. Carter will swim the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke events, while Romany will focus on the 50 free, and both Martin and Julien will splash off in 50 ‘fly action. Martin will also compete in the 200 back.
Carter yesterday described the Championships as an “amazing experience”, and said the decision to scratch the 200 free final was a “dilemma” for him.
“I was placed fifth in both races, so it was a dilemma for me. A decision had to be made between the two as the races were less than ten minutes apart; there was just no time for me to recuperate before the next race, ” he stated.
Carter added that he “just closed my eyes and picked one”.
“There were many technical reasons why that was the better choice; at the end of the day it worked out really well,” the US-based swimmer further explained. “I feel really great to face the next four days, got some renewed energy from the 100 back race tonight. I am taking it one day at a time now (and I’m) focused on the 50 back and the 50 freestyle in the morning.”
On the race, coach Franz Huggins was very pleased.
“The race strategy was well executed,” Huggins said. “We were just almost there, missing the medal by 0.03 seconds. Dylan is now the second fastest backstroke swimmer in our nation’s history. We move on from this and hope for even greater success tomorrow in the 50 metre freestyle and backstroke events.
“The performance in the 100 backstroke built his confidence going into the 50 metre equivalent in the morning. We are confident of making another final in this event and the 50 freestyle.