Senior Multimedia Reporter
nigel.simon@guardian.co.tt
Three-time World Championship medallist Dylan Carter missed out on adding to his two silver and two bronze medals so far in this year’s FINA World Aquatics World Cup when he placed fifth in the men’s 50m butterfly final at the Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre in Greece, yesterday.
The 27-year-old Carter who entered the event on the heels of a 100m freestyle silver medal and 50m freestyle bronze in his first two events had the second-best start of the eight-man field with a 0.61 seconds reaction time, only bettered by Australian Ben Armbruster’s 0.59, the gold medal winner last week.
However, in a major upset, Egyptian Abdelrahman Sameh was first to the wall in 23.04 seconds with Australian Isaac Cooper claiming the silver medal in 23.19, and USA’s Michael Andrew, the bronze in 23.32.
Hungary’s Szebasztian Szabo ended in the fourth spot in 23.35 while Carter, who was joint second in the final last week with Andrew in 23.17 was relegated to the fifth spot this time around in 23.42 followed by Armbruster (23.51), Holland’s Sean Niewold (23.77), and Greece’s Stergios Marios Bilas, in 23.90.
When the heats for the men’s 50m butterfly took place earlier in the day, Carter was an easy winner of heat eight of nine in 23.48 seconds, for the second-best time overall, ahead of Cooper (23.60), and Armbruster (23.74), and Niewold (23.79) with the trio qualifying to the gold medal splash with the fourth, sixth and seventh fastest times.
USA’s Andrew stormed to victory in heat nine in the top time of 23.42 with Sameh (23.58) and Bilas (23.84), the third and eighth and final qualifiers respectively, along with Szabo who won heat seven in 23.61 to be the fifth fastest qualifier.
In the 200m freestyle, USA-based T&T’s Graham Chatoor did not advance to his final after he finished in the eighth and final spot in heat seven of eight in one minute, 54.27 seconds.
The winner of the heat was USA’s Kieran Smith in 1:49.15 minutes followed by Greece’s Dimitrios Markos (1:50.34), and New Zealand’s Zac Reid in 1:50.60 as the trio qualified for the final in the second, fifth, and seventh fastest times respectively.
On Saturday, Carter improved on his bronze medal in the 100m freestyle in 48.73 seconds in Berlin last week, by taking silver in 48.62 seconds, to finish behind Italian Thomas Ceccon who repeated as the champion in 48.36 with Australian Zac Incerti taking the bronze in 48.88, this time after a silver last week.
In the morning heats Carter raced home in 49.10 seconds to win the tenth and final heat ahead of Ceccon’s 49.14 and Holland Stan Pijnenburg (49.29) as the trio secured the second, third, and fifth fastest qualifying times overall, behind Australian Cody Simpson who won heat eight in 48.99 while Chatoor was second in heat two in 53.98, to finish 46th overall, and behind heat winner Qatar’s Mohamed Mahmoud (53.03) who placed 36th.
Chatoor also contested the men’s 800m freestyle and was eighth fastest in eight minutes, 27.67 seconds.
On Friday, Carter made amends for his last placed finish in the Berlin-opening leg of the World Cup 50m freestyle final in 23.79 seconds, when he secured the bronze medal in 22.16 seconds, to trail American Andrew who won gold in 21.96, and Australian Cooper, the winner in Berlin, got silver this time around in 22.07.
