TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO’S DYLAN CARTER WINS 50 METRE BUTTERFLY SILVER IN CARIBBEAN BEST OF 21.98
Today December 20,2021 will mark a special day for Trinidad and Tobago through the effforts of the Soca Sprinter Dylan Carter. He moved up the medal table from Bronze in 2018 to Silver in the 50 metre butterfly at the World Short Course Swimming Championships.
FINDING THE RIGHT RIDDIM
Carter returned home to train with Coach Dexter Browne. Coach Browne , is a visionary who has used the Arts (Photography and Music) with Science to help Dylan along his destined path of greatness. That trip home reaped great benefits as seen by his performances in the International Swimming League. He broke his national record at at the quarter final stage with blast of 22.25. That broke his 2018 Bronze medal winning time of 22.38. In the final of the competition he would challenge that mark with a Bronze medal winning performance of 22.36.
It would be back home to the twin Island Republic under the tutelage of the maestro Browne. They would depart the island for a game changing swim in the United Arab Emirates. Through out the global competition the riddim of soca was building to reach its crescendo in the 50 metre butterfly.
Carter conducted a Caribbean master class in the 100 metre butterfly event. He lowered his 2020 national record from 50 .70 to 50 .22. In the semi final he put on a blazing display of speed to become the first English speaking Caribbean swimmer to go under 50 seconds with a time of 49.87. He narrowly missed making the final placing ninth.
ALL TIME CARIBBEAN PERFORMERS
The soca beat was building and Carter was getting better.
In the heats of the 50 metre event he surpassed his best ever time at the World Championships with the top qualifying time of 22.36.
All across the Caribbean the swim community was starting to move to to the riddim.
In the semi finals there would be a new national record of 22.18 and a rank of third going into the Championship final.
In the final with all of the the CARIFTA region was in tune to the same song as they watched Dylan push all the way to finish with Brazilian soldier Nicholas Santos . The final time on the board read Santos Gold in 21.93 , Carter Silver in 21.98 and Italian Mateo Rivolta Bronze 22.02.
HISTORICAL IMPACT OF SILVER MEDAL
This is the first Silver medal for the CARIFTA,Caribbean and CCCAN regions in in the 50 metre butterfly at these World Championships.
It is also the first Silver medal for any butterfly event at this global championships for the regions. Carter is the only medallist in the butterfly events at this international event with two medals Bronze in 2018 and Silver in 2021.
He is the only swimmer from the CARIFTA, Caribbean and CCCAN regions who has swum under the 22 seconds mark. He is the fastest swimmer of all time in the Americas and the sixth faster performer of all time.
He continues to earn global butterfly medal collection which the 2014 Youth Olympics Silver, 2018 Commonwealth Silver and 2018 Central American and Caribbean Gold
With a massive 968 FINA points Coach Browne would happy to know that we in the Caribbean today share in this moment of immense pride. All of the Caribbean can unite and celebrate loudly this great. When the international community hear us tonight we can proudly say in the words of Bunji Garlin “WE ARE THE SOUND OF SOCA”.