USA-based T&T swimmer Dylan Carter had to settle for the seventh spot in his lone individual swim, in the men's 50m freestyle in Match Three of the second week of the 2020 International Swimming League (ISL) at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.
Representing the star-studded LA Current team, Carter got to the wall in 21.42 seconds, to finish ahead of Michael Chadwick of Toronto Titans who clocked 21.66.
Russia's Vladimir Morozov of debutants Tokyo Frog Kings won the event in 20.98 just ahead of Carter's team-mate Kristian Gkolomeev (21.04) while Aqua Centurions' Szebasztian Szabo took third in 21.19.
The other finishers in the 50m freestyle were Tokyo's Bruno Fratus (21.21), Aqua Centurions' Alessandro Miressi (21.38) and Toronto's Blake Pieroni in 21.41.
A multiple Pan American Games, CARIFTA and CCCAN champion, Carter also combined with Apostolos Christou, Andrew Seliskar and Fernando Hagino for sixth-placed in the men's 4 x 100m freestyle in three minutes, 10.66 seconds.
Overall it was a productive first day for LA Current as they led the four-team table with 262.5 points followed by Tokyo Frog Kings (248.5)m Toronto Titans with 208.5, and Aqua Centurions with 156.5 heading into today's final day.
In addition to the quartet, the six other competing teams are defending champion Energy Standard, Cali Condors, NY Breakers, DC Trident, Iron and, London Roar.
Overall, the six weeks of competition which ends on November 22 feature ten teams from North America, Europe and Asia, all loaded with the world’s elite swimmers including Team Great Britain’s Adam Peaty, Florent Manaudou from France, Federica Pellegrini from Italy, Hungarian Katinka Hosszu and American duo Caeleb Dressel and Lilly King.
When the action began on October 16, the University of Southern California-graduate Carter, who was competing for the first time since his last European outing in February when he competed at the Camille Muffat leg of French Golden Tour the Prince, set a new personal best in the 50 metres freestyle in the 25m pool.
Carter came to the Hungarian capital with a personal best time of 21.68 seconds which he sat at the Tokyo leg of the FINA World Cup in November 2018 but he improved on that with a new sprint standard now standing at 21.51 in placing seventh.
Competing in the 50m backstroke also on October 16, Carter touched the wall in 23.90 for joint fourth spot with Manaudou.
A day later, Carter continued his comeback to major competition with a sixth-placed finish in the 100m backstroke with the second-fastest time of his career of 51.28.
The winner of the event was World champion and Carter’s LA Current team-mate, Ryan Murphy, in 49.62 just ahead of Coleman Stewart who touched in 50.12 and Evgeny Rylov, who ended third in 50.39.
In this event, during the early years of the recognition of the world record in this format, mid-1990’s to the early 2000s the CCCAN region was a common fixture on the podium at the World Championships through the great efforts of the Cuban duo Rodolfo Falcon and Neisser Bent.
On December 28, 2018, what may have escaped many is that Carter in a Time Trial at National Aquatic Centre, Balmain, Couva rocketed to regional all-time greatness.
With Falcon’s Cuban standard of 52.44 as the unofficial CCCAN standard, Carter crushed that record when he blazed to a time of 50.58, a new T&T record and unofficial CARIFTA and CCCAN region best.
With his swim, Carter still stands head and shoulders above the region as no one else but he has gone under 51 seconds or even 52 seconds in the event.
Also on Saturday, Carter completed his slate of events with a swim of 23.25 for seventh in the 50 metres butterfly.
Carter won the bronze medal in this event at the 2018 World Championships in China with a swim of 22.38 and also holds the accolade of being the only CARIFTA region or CCCAN federation swimmer to medal in this event at the global championships. The only other swimmer under the 23 seconds marks is Cayman Islands star Brett Fraser with his best of 22.95.