TEAM TTO Olympic swimmer Dylan Carter swam the third leg of the London Roar men’s 4x100m relay to help them to gold in the event on the first day of Match Day Six of the International Swimming League (ISL) yesterday.
At the Piscina Felice Scandone, in Naples, Italy, Australian Olympian Kyle Chalmers returned to the Roar for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics to lead off the squad in the event’s fastest split (45.69 seconds). Japan international Katsumi Nakamura then took over with a 46.31 second leg segment. Carter posted the third fastest split of the relay with his 46.04 third leg, before Edward Mildred held on for gold with a 47.01 anchor leg.
Together they combined for three minutes 05.05 seconds, a time that easily put them ahead of the Tokyo Frog Kings (3:07.34), and the Aqua Centurions (3:07.48) in that order.
Defending champions Cali Condors, with the USA’s five-time Tokyo2020 Olympic gold medallist Caeleb Dressel, could only place fourth in 3:08.10.
Dressel and the Condors exacted revenge in the men’s 4x100m medley relay, yesterday’s final event. They posted a winning 3:21.29 clocking ahead of the Roars A team (3:22.29) and the Tokyo Frog Kings (3:22.83).
Carter swum the fly leg (50.26 seconds) for the Roar’s ‘B’ squad as they were timed in 3:25.37.
Speaking to the Sunday Express before his warm-up session yesterday, Carter said he was just relaxing and racing after the Olympics.
“It’s a pretty fun schedule, not too much pressure, just some relays for fun. Really no expectations, training has been obviously pretty spotty post-Tokyo, taking a little bit of a rest and stuff, so it has been pretty fun being out here. I was pretty happy with the meet last week, and so we will see what we get. No expectations just trying to have a good time and enjoying the team atmosphere ,” Carter said.
Last week on Match Day Three, the California-based Carter won a silver and bronze medal on his Roar debut.
On September 3, on the final day of that match, the 25-year-old won bronze in the 50 metres butterfly in 22.62 seconds, competing from lane five to trail 41-year-old Brazilian Nicholas Santos of Iron who won in 22.18, while Energy Standard’s Ben Proud took silver in 22.43.
A day earlier, Carter swam the joint fastest leg of 46.37 in picking up a silver medal as part of the 4x100m freestyle relay quartet alongside Katsumi Nakamura, Zac Incerti and Duncan Scott who clocked a combined time of three minutes, 07.62 seconds. The NY Breakers won in 3:07.02 minutes while Energy Standard finished third in 3:07.63.
Following this weekend’s splash, Carter and London Roar will next compete on Match Day Eight (September 18-19) against Energy Standard, LA Current and Tokyo Frog Kings before concluding their series versus Energy Standard, Toronto Titans and DC Trident from September 23-24.
On completion of the round-robin stage, the first playoff takes place from September 29-30 in Naples as well, before the event shifts to the Pieter Van Den Hoogenband Stadium, in Holland for the semi-finals from November 11-18 and 25-28.
The finals of the third edition are carded for January, 2022 at a venue yet to be determined.