T&T’s Dylan Carter swam the final leg as London Roar stormed to victory in the men’s 4x100 metres freestyle on the opening day of semifinal Match Day Four Playoff when the International Swimming League continued in Eindhoven, Holland on Saturday.
Competing at the Pieter Van Den Hoogenband Stadium, London Roar’s Australian Kyle Chalmers swam the lead-off leg in a scorching 45.53 seconds and his teammates Katsumi Nakamura (46.63 seconds) and Zac Incerti (46.49) made certain of staying ahead of the chasing pack with equally impressive times over the second and third legs.
For the final leg, Carter enjoyed a nice cushion of a lead and behind his impressive split of 45.90 seconds, the Roar took the gold medal in three minutes, 04.55 seconds, the fastest time of the season, and 38 valuable team points.
Carter’s former team LA Current with Brett Pinfold (47.09), Apostolos Christou (45.98), Tom Shields (47.95), and Maxime Rooney (46.03) took silver in 3:06.15 while Cali Condors comprising Kacper Majchrzak (47.10), Jesse Puts (47.58), Justin Ress (46.25) and American ace Caeleb Dressel (47.26) got bronze in 3:08.19.
And in the 20th and final event of the day, Carter moved his team up from fourth to second on the anchor–leg in 45.86 after teammates Guilherme Guido (49.20), Sam Williamson (58.05), and Chalmers (50.03) for silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay in 3:23.23 minutes and 14 points.
This time, Cali Condors moved up from sixth after the first-leg to take gold in 3:22.44 behind Coleman Stewart (50.47), Nic Fink (56.58), Dressel (49.60), and Ress (45.79) while LA Current’s Ryan Murphy (48.73), Javier Acevedo (58.45), Shields (48.83) and Pinfold (46.32) took bronze in 3:23.33.
The London Roar ‘B’ quartet of Christian Diener (49.65), Ross Murdoch (57.51), Vini Lanza (50.17), and Nakamura (47.24) ended fourth in 3:24.57 to add ten valuable points to their team’s tally.
In the men’s 50m freestyle final, Carter had to settle for joint fifth spot with Team Iron’s Thom de Boer in 21.09 seconds, only ahead of Cali Condors’ Jesse Puts (21.26), and LA Current’s Maxime Rooney (21.52).
Carter and London Roar still had reasons to celebrate in the event as his teammate, Australia Kyle Chalmers won gold in 20.97, his third win in the event this season to beat LA Current’s Kristian Gkolomeev (21.00) and Cali Condors’ Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel (21.04) to second and third respectively, while Iron’s Maxim Lobanovszkij was fourth in 21.08.
Dressel had won the event twice early in the regular season, clocking 20.86 in Match 2 and 20.67 in Match 4.
Going into Sunday’s second and final day of Match Day Four, London Roar leads after 20 events with 287.5 points, 47.5 ahead of Cali Condors (238) while LA Current is third with 228, and Iron, fourth with 156 with 19 events to come on Sunday.
Following this weekend event, Carter and London Roar will complete their schedule on Match Day Five carded for November, 25 and 26.
They will face Energy Standard, LA Current, and DC Trident, while Match Day Six will feature Cali Condors, Titans, Aqua Centurions, and Iron on November 27 and 28.
At the end of the semifinals, the top four teams will advance to the finals in Eindhoven, the same site as the upcoming ISL playoffs.
Last weekend, Carter made a triumphant return to the competition picking up a gold and two silver medals in his team’s first playoff splash,
On Sunday, Carter got silver in the men’s 50 metres butterfly in 22.52 seconds for a joint second spot with Aqua Centurion’s Matteo Rivolta as both swimmers finished just 0.01 behind LA Current’s Tom Shield.
However, in the men’s 50m butterfly skins, the 25-year-old Carter bowed out at the semifinal stage after a fourth-placed in 23.49 seconds, with Chalmers just ahead in third in 23.35 while Centurions’ Rivolta (23.24) and LA Current’s Shields (23.31) advanced to the final, where Rivolta won in 23.39 to Shields’ 23.84.
In the opening round of the butterfly skins, Carter had the fastest time of 22.25 with Shields (22.46), Rivolta (22.47), and Chalmers (22.62) the other qualifiers to the semifinals.
A day earlier, Carter picked up where he left off in the preliminary round as he won a gold and silver medal for London Roar to up his season tally to 11 medals.
In the men’s 50 metres freestyle final Chalmers took the crown with a 21.10 seconds clocking, with Carter and Toronto Titan’s Lorenzo Zazzeri joint second in 21.11.
In the 4x100 freestyle relay, Chalmers, Nakamura, Incerti and Carter won in 3:05.43 minutes.
LA finished second in 3:08.03 minutes, while Toronto and Aqua tied for third in 2:08.97.
A former member of the LA Current for the first two editions of the ISL, Carter won nine medals from four Match Days of the ten-Match Days preliminary round which ended last month in Naples, Italy.
T&T's first-ever Commonwealth Games swimming medal winner, Carter's medal tally included four gold, three silver, and two bronze which helped his team to 13 points from a maximum of 16 and third spot on the ten-club standings to be among the automatic semifinal qualifiers.
Current ISL semifinal playoff standings:
Position*Team*Matches Contested*Match Points*Team Points
1. Energy Standard*2*1,105*7
2. Toronto Titans*2*805.5*5
3. Cali Condors*1*534.5*4
4. LA Current*1*506*4
5. London Roar*1*494.5*3
6. DC Trident*2*742.5*3
7. Aqua Centurions*2*747*3
8. Team Iron*1*340*1
Umcoming fixtures
Match 5: November 25-26: #1 Energy Standard, #3 London Roar, #5 LA Current, #7 DC Trident
Match 6: November 27-28: #2 Cali Condors, #4 Toronto Titans, #6 Aqua Centurions, #8 Iron
Finals: December 3-4