Carter swims to 50m butterfly final

TRINIDAD AND Tobago’s swimmer Dylan Carter advanced to today’s final of the men’s 50-metre butterfly, on the first day of action in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, at the Gold Coast, Australia.

In yesterday’s first semi-final, at the Optus Aquatic Centre, Carter, who swam in lane four, finished second in a time of 23.90 seconds.

He finished behind Australia’s Grant Irvine, who clocked 23.79 seconds, while Sam Perry of New Zealand was third in 23.99.

The other semi-final saw a one-two for South Africa, with reigning World Short Course 50m butterfly gold medallist Chad Le Clos winning in 23.53, with Ryan Coetzee next in 23.79.

The final is carded to take place at 5.37 am (TT time), with the 22-year-old Carter drawn in lane six, along with Jacob Peters of England (lane one), Daniel Hunter of New Zealand (lane two), Coetzee (lane three), Le Clos (lane four), Irvine (lane five), Perry (lane seven) and David Morgan. TT boxer Michael Alexander progressed to the second round of the men’s 60-kilogramme (lightweight) category, after a unanimous decision (five points to zero) over Kenya’s Nicholas Okoth, at the Oxenford Studios.

The 25-year-old, who copped bronze at the 2014 Games in Glasgow, Scotland, will now focus on the challenge from India’s Manish Kaushik, when they square off on Sunday, at 11.17 pm (TT time).

The other TT fighter at the Games, Nigel Paul, got a bye into the second round of the men’s 91-plus kilogramme (heavyweight) class.

TT’s Jenna Ross placed 21st out of a field of 24 in the women’s triathlon, in a time of one hour 10 minutes 25 seconds. Bermuda’s Flora Duffy took gold in 56 minutes 50 seconds, ahead of England’s Jessica Learmonth (57 minutes 33 seconds) and Canada’s Joanna Brown (57 minutes 38 seconds).

Ross’ participation at the Games is now over, as well as English-born TT gymnast Joseph Fox, who was 26th out of 27 entrants in the men’s team final and individual qualification, with a tally of 70.675 points.

Evergreen table tennis star Dexter St Louis, who took legal measures against the TT Table Tennis Association (TTTTA) to ensure that he was on the plane to Australia, had a rough start to his campaign in the men’s team competition.

The 50-year-old, and his teammates Aaron Wilson and Yuvraaj Dookram, were spanked 3-0 by India in a Group One meeting.

St Louis was beaten 11-5, 3-11, 11-2, 14-12 by Amalraj Anthony, while Wilson was brushed aside by Sathiyan Gnanasekaran 11-5, 11-5, 11-4. And, in the men’s doubles, Gnanasekaran and Harmeet Desai whipped Wilson and Yuvraaj Dookram 11-9, 11-4, 11-4.

The TT men’s table tennis team returned to action last night against Northern Ireland.

In squash, Kale Wilson, Mandela Patrick and Charlotte Knaggs were all beaten in their respective first round singles matches.

In men’s action, Wilson lost 13-11, 11-8, 11-8 to Malta’s Daniel Zammit-Lewis, and Patrick was defeated by Malaysia’s Ivan Yuen 11-4, 11-2, 11-6. Knaggs went under to Dapika Pallikal Karthik of India 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 in the women’s category.

Patrick and Knaggs were expected to feature last night, in singles plate action. Patrick was carded to meet Cameron Stafford of the Cayman Islands in a Round of 32 game, while Knaggs was slated to face Barbados’ Meagan Best.

And in cycling, the trio of Kwesi Browne, Nicholas Paul and Njisane Phillip failed to advance beyond the first round of the men’s team sprint, having finished sixth out of eight entrants in a time of 45.386 seconds.

Today (from 5.02 am TT time), the trio will be back at the Anna Meares Velodrome, in the men’s keirin first round. Browne will ride in heat one while Paul will compete in heat three and Phillip in heat four.

Today will also see the Commonwealth debuts of the beach volleyball pair of Abby Blackman and Rheeza Grant.

They will oppose England’s Jessica Grimson and Victoria Palmer in Pool B, in the women’s preliminary round.