Senior Multimedia Reporter
nigel.simon@guardian.co.tt
Olympian Dylan Carter missed out on adding to his four medals (two silver and two bronze) after he placed fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle final on the opening night of competition when the third and final leg of the 2023 FINA World Aquatics World Cup splashed off at the Duna Arena, in Budapest, Hungary, yesterday.
In an electric final race of the day, Carter had the joint slowest reaction time to the starter’s gun of 0.67 seconds alongside hometown sensation Szebasztian Szabo as the duo failed to make up the ground and had to settle for fifth and sixth positions respectively in the gold medal splash in 22.06 seconds, and 22.21.
Taking the gold medal was Great Britain’s Ben Proud who after getting the fastest start of all the finalists in 0.61 seconds ripped a 21.77 to take the victory, touching out a pair of guys who were also under 22 seconds.
American Michael Andrew picked up the silver medal with a 21.85, coming in under the 21.96 he won gold with last week in Athens while Australian Isaac Cooper was also faster than last week, earning bronze in 21.92 after he finished second in Athens last year in 22.07 while Holland’s Kenzo Simons ended fourth in 22.02.
The duo of Italian Lorenzo Zazzeri (22.24), and Holland’s Stan Pijnenburg who clocked 22.35 were the seventh and eighth-placed finishers.
Earlier when the preliminary heats swam off, Carter, 27, the winner of the men’s overall title last year with nine gold medals in the 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly, and 50m breaststroke combined and a three-time World Championship medal winner had his fastest swim of the season and one of the fastest of his career in 21.98 seconds.
The time by Carter neared his lifetime best of 21.91 as he qualified in the first position for the final ahead of Andrew who touched in 22.05 with Zazzeri, third in 22.28.
Simons (22.11) won heat nine to be the third fastest qualifier and was joined from his heat by Proud (22.22), Pijnenburg (22.23), and Cooper, the winner in Berlin in 21.93, who touched the wall in 22.35 as they secured the fifth, sixth and eighth fastest times.
The other qualifier to the final was Szabo who won heat eighth in 22.19 for the fourth fastest time in the heats.
Chatoor was the first T&T swimmer in action when he lined up in the second event, the men’s 400m freestyle in heat three of four, and placed tenth in four minutes, 02.41 seconds for the 18th position overall.
The winner of the heat was Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys in 3:50.94 minutes to be the second fastest qualifier for the eight-man overall and was joined in the final by USA’s Kieran Smith (3:51.53), Hungary’s Zalan Sarkany (3:51.57), Australian Brendon Smith (3:51.92), and Hungarian David Betlehem (3:52.59) who qualified as the third, fourth, fifth and eight fastest swimmers.
In Hungary, Carter will also compete in the men’s 100m freestyle, and 50m butterfly while Chatoor will also face the starter in the men’s 100m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, and 200m freestyle events over the course of the three days of swimming.
A 19-time World Cup Series medalist, and the reigning three-time 2023 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games gold medalist Carter and Chatoor will be in action again today (Saturday).
Firstly, Chatoor lines up in the third of 11 men’s 100m freestyle heats from 4.50 am (TT time) with Hungarians Marton Koncz, Balazs Ament, Balazs Bansagi, Gabor Fazekas, Gergely Gascal, Bertalan Tadits, Amin Toro, and Barnabas Medvei as well as Czech Republic’s Jan Cejka.
Carter will line up in the penultimate 100m freestyle heat in the morning program against Schwietert, Andrea and his countryman Shaun Champion, Nemeth, Frigo, Serbian Velmir Stjepanovic, Switzerland’s Roman Mityukov, Great Britain’s Jamie Ingram, and Estonian Marko-Matteus Langel.
Chatoor, 23, then closes out Saturday’s morning schedule when he faces the starter in the second of two men’s 1,500m freestyle slowest heats from 6.02 am (TT time) rivaled by hometown swimmers Akos Versitz, Balint Kreisz, Leventa Buda, Dominik Kaiser, Mate Karpati, Daniel Antal Tohl, Oliver Toth, and Oliver Pava, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Filip Kuruzovic.
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Then tomorrow (Sunday), both T&T swimmers will be in action again with Carter first in the water to contest the seventh of eight 50m butterfly heats against Hungarian duo Richard Marton and Nemeth, Czech Republic’s Jan Sefl, Australia’s Cody Simpson, and Ben Armbruster, South African legend Chad Le Clos, Philippines Jarod Hatch, Slovakian Adam Halas and 18-year-old World Junior Record holder Diogo Ribeiro of Portugal who fired off a mark of 22.96 at last year’s World Junior Championships, which made him the the first-ever junior to delve under the 23-second threshold in the event.
Chatoor then lines up for the men’s 200m freestyle fifth of eight heats from 5.24 am (TT time) against locals Akos Horvath, Mate Hosszu, Zsombor Bujdoso, and Sarkany, Holland’s Ivo Stolk, and Koen Marsman, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Kenan Dracic, Georgia’s Luka Kukhalashvili and Moldova’s Egor Covaliov
After two stages of the three-part World Cup Series, Carter has so far accumulated 83.1 points and US$9,500 for the 11th position overall.
This after he gained 43.80 points comprising 18 score points, and 25.8 based on his performances for the 11th position and pocketed US$4,900 at the just concluded second-leg in Athens, Greece after his Berlin-first haul of 39.3 points, US$4,600 in prize money when he was 14th best.
Last year, when the series was being contested in short course metres, Carter and USA’s Nick Fink dominated, but after one leg in the long course, Fink is also struggling to be among the top three with a current position of ninth with 84.8 points, and US$9,700 in prize money.
