Carter into World Short Course men’s 50m backstroke final

TRINIDAD AND Tobago swimmer Dylan Carter sealed a spot in the finals of the men’s 50-metre backstroke at the 16th FINA World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia on Thursday.

Carter finished third in semi-final one in 22.90 seconds to earn a spot in Friday’s final at 5.12 am (TT time).

Australian Isaac Cooper won semi-final one in 22.52 and American Ryan Murphy was second in 22.74. Fourth placed Marek Ulrich of Germany also booked a place in the final after clocking 23.03.

Advancing to the final from semi-final two were Kacper Stokowski of Poland (22.74), South African Pieter Coetze (22.86) and Italian Lorenzo Mora (22.90).

American Hunter Armstrong and Apostolos Christou of Greece both clocked the same time (23.05) in the semi-finals and were scheduled to participate in a swim off at 9.55 pm on Thursday. The winner would have qualified for the final.

Carter finished sixth in the men’s 50m butterfly final on Wednesday.

Carter touched the wall in 22.14. Winning gold was Brazilian Nicholas Santos in 21.78, followed by Noe Ponti of Switzerland in 21.96 and Szebasztian Szabo of Hungary copped bronze in 21.98. Finishing fourth was Tzen Wei Teong of Singapore in 22.01 and South African Chad Le Clos ended fifth in 22.11.

Carter was faster in the heats and semi-finals of the event.

Competing in heat eight on Tuesday (Monday night TT time), Carter ended in 22.11 to seal a place in the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals on Tuesday morning, Carter won semi-final one in 22.02.

After press time on Thursday, Carter was in the pool again to face the starter in the men’s 50m freestyle heats. He competed in heat nine at 9.30 pm.

The TT swimmer has been in scintillating form this year. Last month he completed the 2022 FINA Swimming World Cup series as the top individual athlete in the men's category.

Carter won triple gold in the men’s 50m backstroke, 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly at each stage of the three-leg series.

The first leg was held in Berlin, Germany, the second leg in Toronto, Canada and the final leg in Indianapolis, USA.