NATIONAL SWIMMER Dylan Carter, became the seventh Trinidad and Tobago athlete to secure a spot at the dawning 2016 Rio Games yesterday.
After achieving multiple ‘B’ qualification standard times at various international meets over the past few months, the University of Southern California (USC) student was informed by FINA, the global governing body for aquatics, that he would in fact be able to fly the red, white and black in the 100 metre freestyle event at the XXXI Olympiad.
The 20-year old swimmer joins fellow Olympic-bound nationals Njisane Phillip (cycling), Christopher George (judo), Aisha Chow (rowing), Nigel Paul (boxing), Andrew Lewis (sailing) and George Bovell III (swimmer) at the Summer Games.
In a release issued by the Amateur Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago (ASATT ) yesterday, the local body congratulated Carter on his Olympic debut.
“Following the first stages of the Swimming qualification procedure for the Rio 2016 Olympic games, Carter received an Olympic Standard B Time to take part in the competition and will swim in the 100m freestyle event. He joins our esteemed Olympian, bronze medalist, George Bovell III on the road to Rio,” it read.
ASATT president Joseph Mc- Leod expressed pleasure with Carter’s achievement and admitted that this year’s Brazil edition of the Games is expected to be Bovell’s final Olympic showing.
And now with Carter’s timely inclusion, his qualification to the biggest competitive stage bridges the gap between TT ’s outgoing talents and the newcomers.
“We feel very elated that he has qualified,” said McLeod yesterday.
“He is one of our young talents that we anticipate would be filling the shoes and gap that George would leave which would be very soon. Dylan has worked very hard over the years and has maintained a very high standard of swimming. I think what he is enjoying right now is the fruits of all that hard work he has done.
I am very happy for him and I congratulate him on leaving this milestone in his career, which is the ultimate, and i have no doubt that there will be many more to come.” McLeod added, “originally, the Games were only going to accept ‘A’ times. But there’s a certain ‘A’ quota that has to be filled. And if this isn’t filled, there is the possibility that they may go with ‘B’ times. So what he has done after qualifying with these ‘B’ times, each meet that he swam in, he tried to get as close as possible if not achieve the ‘A’ standard time.”