T&T’s Dylan Carter finished with a creditable fourth-place finish in the men’s 100 metres freestyle A-Final when the 2021 TYR Pro Swim Series hosted by the USA Swimming concluded at the Marguerite Aquatics Center, Mission Viejo, California on Sunday.
It was the first A-Final contested by Carter, a University of Southern California graduate and recent recipient of 2020 First Citizen Sports Foundation “Sportsman of the Year” and T&T Olympic Committee top accolades.
Before the final, the 25-year-old Carter of Team Elite chances of a top-three finish had gradually improved after top-seeded Caeleb Dressel (48.82 seconds), third-best in the heats Zach Apple (49.13) and fifth-fastest qualifier Khader Baqlah (49.38) scratched from the final leaving American Nathan Adrian who had the second-best time in Saturday’s heats of 48.98 as the favourite.
Seeded behind Adrian were international swimmers, Singaporean Zheng Quah (49.34), Carter (49.55) and Germany’s Eric Friese, Michael Chadwick, and Luke Maurer all with 49.61 clockings.
This meant no swim-off was needed to determine two swimmers to qualify from the final from the trio while Cristian Quintero (49.66) and Dean Farris (50.16) moved up from the B-Final just ahead of Brazilian, Bruno Fratus (50.17), who later scratched his final as well
In the final, the 32-year-old Adrian got off to a fast start and had led at the half-way mark with a split of 23.26 to Quah’s 23.41 while Friese was third in 23.41, and Carter, T&T’s first-ever Commonwealth Games swimming medallist some way off the pace in sixth in 23.85.
American Adrian maintain his lead over the field to take gold in 48.74 after the second split of 25.48 while Friese (25.56) jumped Quah (25.89) for the second spot in 49.05 to his rival 49.40, and Carter had a much-improved second-leg in 25.66, the third fastest to improved two places to fourth in 49.51/
The quartet of Chadwick (49.62), Quintero (49.66), Maurer (49.73) and Farris (50.29) completed the list of finishers.
On Saturday morning, competing from lane six, Carter raced home in 22.72 seconds for third spot in the 50m freestyle B-Final to trail Michael Chadwick who won in 22.52 and Santiago Grassi, who took second in 22.71.
The other finishers in the B-Final were Farris (22.88), Olesksii Khnyki (22.95), Jonathan Berneburg (22.98), Luis Martinez (23.10) and Sid Farber, who got home in 23.12 seconds.
In Friday night heats, Carter had the 12th best time overall in 22.81 seconds behind fellow B-Final qualifiers’, Grassi (22.66), Chadwick (22.69), and Berneburg (22.77) who were ninth, tenth and 11th overall respectively.
Carter’s sub-23 clocking bettered his 22.96 he achieved at the three-day 2012 Federation France Swimming International FFN Camille Muffat Golden Tour Meeting De Nice in France in February in the A-Final when he ended in fifth spot as well as his 23.13 preliminary heats time.
The quartet of Farris (22.89), Martinez (22.89), Farber (22.90) and Friese (22.92( occupied positions 13th to 16th overall to qualify to the B-Final from their respective heats.
In the A-final, Brazilian Bruno Fratus edged out American Caeleb Dressel by three hundredths, 21.80 to 21.83, to take gold.
Fratus was .07 off his prelims time from Friday night, but both swims help him make the case for representing Brazil in the event in Tokyo.
Fratus explained in the post-race interview that the Brazilian Federation only recently decided to use Mission Viejo as his selection meet.
And he quickly tapered and shaved and got the job done.
As long as two Brazilian swimmers do not go faster than his 21.73 from last night, Fratus is likely to earn the spot.
Coming to the wall in third place was Michael Andrew with 22.13 while Nathan Adrian touched 4th in 22.29.
The quartet of Payton Sorenson (22.34), Zach Apple (22.41), Bjorn Seeliger (22.52) and Matt Targett (22.62) completed the list of finishers in the A-Final
Among the top qualifiers to the A-Final Fratus moved one step closer to punching his ticket to Tokyo.
Given that the Brazil Federation designated the Pro Series Swim Mission Viejo as his replacement Olympic selection meet, all Fratus needed to do was achieve the FINA A qualifying A standard (22.01) and then wait to see if two swimmers go faster at Brazil’s selection meet in April.
Part One of that two-step dance was achieved when Fratus clocked a 21.73 to win his heat and claimed the top qualification time overall ahead of
Andrew (22.24), Dressel (22.29), Apple (22.30), Sorenson (22.46), Targett (22.48), Adrian (22.48) and Seeliger (22.53) were the other A-Final qualifiers.
Fratus’ time is the second-fastest in the world so far this season, squeezing between France’s Olympic champion Florent Manaudou (21.72) and Holland’s Thom de Boer (21.74).
On Friday morning, Carter ended in sixth in the men’s 100 metres butterfly B-Final in 53.34.