T&T swimmers, Dylan Carter and Cadell Lyons both failed to qualify for the semifinals of their respective men's 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly events when at the 18th FINA World Championship which continued at the Nambu International Aquatic Centre, in Gwangju, South Korea on Friday.
The 23-year-old Carter who qualified for the 100m freestyle at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Tuesday night, had a disappointing end to the championship with a 41st place finish in the men's 50m freestyle.
This after Carter, a standout swimmer for the University of Southern California from which he recently graduated, and the winner of this country’s first-ever swim medal for T&T at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, last year, touched the wall in 22.65 seconds from lane-one for the sixth spot in the heat which comprised ten swimmers.
Finishing ahead of the T&T swimmer who had earlier in the meet qualified for all three semifinals of the his other events were Israel's Meiron Cheruti (22.06), Chinese Taipei's Chung-Feng Wu (22.21), Belgium's Pieter Timmers (22.32), and the pair of Hong Kong's Ian Yentou Ho and New Zealand's Michael Pickett who both clocked 22.59.
The quartet of Kazakhstan's Alexandr Varakin (22.72), Serbian Andrej Barna (22.77), Norwegian Niksa Stojkovski (22.79) and India’s Virdhawal Khade (22.95) were the other finishers in the heat.
On Tuesday, Carter, swimming from lane eight in the first of two 100m freestyle semifinals touched the wall in 48.52 seconds for seventh in the heat, which was just ahead of the Olympic standard qualification mark of 45.87 and 12th overall.
Overall, Carter’s time placed him 12th from the two semifinals and his Olympic Games appearance next year will be the second straight after the former Fatima College student competed in the men’s 100m freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016.
He also placed 16th in the 100m backstroke (54.08) and 13th in the 50m butterfly (23.37) in his other swims.
Competing in heat four of nine, Cadell Lyons won in 54.79 seconds for 46th spot overall, ahead of Syrian Ayman Kelzi (55.15), Iran's Alireza Yavari (55.63), Jamaican Keanan Dols (55.66), Georgia's Teimuraz Kobakhidze (56.03), Costa Rican Bryan Alvarez (56.04), St Lucian Jayhan Odlum-Smith (56.31), Curacao's Seggio Bernardina (56.54), Qatari Yacob Al-Hhulaifi (56.62) and Guatemalan, Feranndo Ponce (58.26).
On Friday night, T&T’s lone women competitor in Korea, Cherelle Thompson was expected to lines up in the 50m freestyle, heat seven of 11 with Lushavel Stickland of Samoa, Kenyan Emily Muteti, Cayman Islands’ Lauren Hew, Curacao’s Chade Nersicio, Maddy Moore of Bermuda, Mariel Mencia of Dominican Republic, Kei On Lei, Botswana’s Naomi Ruele and Natalya Kritinina of Uzbekistan.