T&T’s Dylan Carter established two new freestyle meet records when the two-day Marka Petrusewicza Memorial Swim Meet concluded in Wroclaw, Poland.
The 27-year-old T&T swimmer set a new meet record in the men’s 50m freestyle when he won the gold medal swimming from lane six in the 25m pool in 20.89 seconds to better the old record of 21.16 which was set by Poland’s Pawel Juraszek in 2021. Holland’s Kenzo Simons took silver in 21.10, and Konrad Czerniak, the bronze in 21.62.
The T&T ace also got a bronze medal in the men’s 100m Individual Medley when he touched the wall in 54.52 seconds to finish behind Holland’s Casper Corbeau who won in a new meet record time of 52.62 to erase the old mark of 53.07 held by Kacper Majchrzak since October last year, while home town swimmer Pawel Smolinski got silver in 54.52.
Carter, coming off a five-medal haul (three silver, and two bronze) won over the three legs of the just concluded FINA World Aquatic Swimming Series in Berlins, Athens, and Hungary also won the highly anticipated Skins Race, beating Simons in the two-man final of the 25m race in a time of 9.78 seconds, to 9.97.
In the first round of the Skins Race the top 10 swimmers Simons won in 9.71 followed by Carter (9.79), Chad Le Clos (9.94), and Proud in 10.04, while Dudys (10.05), Misiak (10.09), Czerniak (10.12), Ludwiczak (10.21), Szymon Rozycki (10.25), and Polewka (10.35) were the other finishers.
The second round of the Skins Race saw Carter exact revenge on Simons winning in 9.82 to his rivals’ 9.88 with Le Clos, third in 9.97, Ludwiczak (9.99), Czerniak (10.00), Proud (10.06), Misiak (10.20), and Dudys (10.24) to complete the top eight.
Carter made certain of his place with victory in 9.74, just ahead of Proud who clocked 9.75, with Simons, third in 9.82, and Le Clos, fourth in 9.86, while Ludwiczak (10.08), and Czerniak (10.17) missed out.
In the semifinal, Carter again out-swam the field in 9.70 with Simons joining him in the two-man final in 9.75 while Proud clocked 9.78, and Le Clos, 9.81.
Carter returned to the venue and threw down a new meet record in the 100m freestyle final of 46.60 seconds, erasing the previous standard of 46.84 posted by Holland’s Stan Pijnenburg in 2021.
Carter was more than half a second clear of Simons (47.36) and Dudys (47.41) in the final, but still more than half a second behind his own T&T record of 46.02 from last November.
Next up for Carter was the 50m backstroke, where he had to settle for the bronze medal with a time of 23.77 seconds, to trail Simone Stefani who took the gold medal in 23.49 with his countryman Ralf Tribuntsov, taking the silver medal in 23.58.
Carter went on to win the fiveround, 25-meter skins event at the end of the session, prevailing with times of 10.29, 9.78, and 12.80 in his last three swims.
In the first round of the Skins Race, Corbeau won in 11.82 with Smolinski (12.34), Ludwiczak (12.57), Kacper Maksajda (12.69), and Carter (12.94) rounding off the top five.
In the second round of the Skins Race, Ludwiczak surged to the top spot in 11.47 with Carter, the second best in 11.53, Rozycki, third in 11.84, Krystian Czeszewski, fourth in 11.89, and Mikolaj Popiel, fifth in 11.90.
From then on it was all Carter as he won Round Three in 10.29 well ahead of Ludwiczak (10.69), Smolinksi (10.74), and Czeszewski (10.97) who all qualified for the four-man semifinals.
And in the semifinals, Carter was again the fastest to the wall in 9.78 to beat Ludwiczak (10.11) into the second spot ahead of their finals clash while Smolinski (10.44), and Czeszewski (10.68) were third and fourth respectively. The final of the Skins Race was a fitting end to the men’s
