Dylan Carter scratches out of 100m freestyle semis at World Aquatics Champs

Ace Trinidad and Tobago swimmer Dylan Carter opted out of his 100-metre freestyle semifinal at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships Short Course in Budapest, Hungary on December 11, despite notching the 11th-best time in the preliminary round.

Swimming out of lane three in the 11th and final heat, Carter hit the wall in 46.63 seconds to finish in fourth spot. The heat was won by France's Maxime Grousset in 46.01 seconds, with Russia's Egor Kornev (46.07) and Ireland's Shane Ryan (46.23) finishing in second and third respectively.

Carter's time put him among the top 16 swimmers and earned him a spot in the semifinals, which were contested just after 1 pm on December 11.

But a social media post from the Sport Company of TT (SporTT) said the three-time Olympian scratched out of the semifinal, to focus on upcoming meets at the World Championships.

"(Carter's) clocking was the 11th-fastest in qualifying. However, he decided to take a strategic rest from the semis to focus on the 50-metre backstroke," SporTT wrote.

Carter's spot went to Italian Leonardo Deplano, who did not advance to the December 12 final after finishing fifth in the first semifinal in 46.29 seconds.

Cayman Islands swimmer Jordan Crooks clocked the fastest time in the semis when he won heat two in 45.22 seconds. Crooks notched a championship record earlier in the day when he won his preliminary heat in a blistering 44.95 seconds.

Carter will return to the pool from 4.28 am TT time on December 12, when he contests heat six of the 50m backstroke.

From 4.07 am on December 12, Zuri Ferguson will face the starters for heat three of the women's 50m backstroke.

On December 10, the 17-year-old Ferguson broke the national record in the women's 100m backstroke event when she clocked a time of one minute, 00.12 seconds (1:00.12) to eclipse the previous mark, which was held by Ornella Walker (1:01.92).

Ferguson also set a new national record for the 15-17 age group.

The semifinals for both the men's and women's 50m backstroke events will be held in the evening session on December 12.