Chow, Carter miss out on qualification in Tokyo

DYLAN Carter and Felice Aisha Chow did not qualify in swimming and rowing respectively when the Trinidad and Tobago athletes continued to compete for glory at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

On Sunday, lining up in the men’s 100-metre backstroke heats, Carter was fourth in heat three in 54.82 seconds, swimming in lane three at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Kacper Stokowski of Poland won the heat in 53.99, Francisco Rogerio Santos of Portugal finished second in 54.35 and Jan Cejka of Czech Republic grabbed third spot in 54.69.

A total of 41 swimmers participated, with the top 16 earning a place in the semifinals. The TT swimmer ended 32nd overall after six heats.

Carter was in second place in his heat after 50m, then had the lead with 25m left. But he faded in the final metres of the race.

The 25-year-old will now switch focus to the men’s 100m freestyle event. He will swim in the heats, which begin at 6.13 am on Tuesday (TT time).

Chow did not advance to the women’s single sculls semi-finals after placing fifth in her quarterfinal heat at the Sea Forest Waterway on Saturday night.

The 44-year-old rower competed in heat three, clocking a time of eight minutes, 21.23 seconds (8:21.23).

Austria’s Magdalena Lobnig won the race with a time of 7:58.20, followed by the Netherlands’ Anna Souwer (7:59.92), Greece’s Anneta Kyridou (8:09.19) and Belarus’ Tatsiana Klimovich (8:09.04). Puerto Rico’s Veronica Toro Arana placed sixth with a time of 8:35.32.

The three fastest athletes in the quarterfinal heats advance to the semi-finals.

Chow will now participate in the semi-final C/D at 7.50 pm on Monday, but will no longer have an opportunity to earn a medal for TT.

On Friday evening, she won her repechage heat, clocking a time of 8:15.94 to book her spot in the quarterfinals.

Chow made her debut for TT at the Olympics at the 2016 Rio games.

On Sunday, TT sailor Andrew Lewis finished 23rd in a field of 35 athletes when the men’s one-person dinghy laser competition began at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour.

Lewis, competing at his third Olympic Games, had an average speed of 5.1 knots in race one. He achieved a top speed of 8.4 knots during the race.

Lewis was given 23 points for his effort.

Jean Baptiste Bernaz of France, who won the event, picked up one point. Kaarle Tapper of Finland finished second and Hermann Tomasgaard of Norway grabbed third spot.

The second race of the men’s dinghy was postponed.

Lewis will compete in the remaining nine races of the men’s dinghy in the coming days. The athletes will compete in ten races in total.

TT cyclist Teniel Campbell was among 19 athletes who did not complete the women’s cycling road, on Sunday morning.

Nevertheless, Campbell made history for TT as the first woman to represent this country in the sport at the prestigious games.

Campbell began the 137-kilometre race around 12.30 am in 33°C weather. She was the lone Caribbean athlete of the 67 cyclists.

But when she was three hours and six minutes in, officials flagged down Campbell to alert her that barriers had already been placed across the track shortly ahead, so she would not get a chance to complete the race.

In road cycling, athletes are pulled from the race by officials if they are too far behind the leading cyclists.

Her average placement was 52nd, with an average speed of 30.9 km/h.

Winning gold was Austria’s Anna Kiesenhoffer in three hours, 52 minutes and 45 seconds (3:52:45). Netherlands’ Annamiek van Vleuten took silver (3:54:00) and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini came third (3:54:14).

In an interview, Campbell said she wanted to do better and “expected more” of herself.

“I didn’t have the legs. I started catching cramp…I got dropped, I reconnected then got dropped again and panicked. I should have paced it well but instead, panicking made me explode.

“It’s really heart-wrenching for me so I can only imagine for you guys. But I hope I still made you guys proud in some way.

“(I’m) holding my head high and looking forward to 2024. I’m coming back for it for sure.”

She said she is going to get “stronger and better.”