Trinidad and Tobago swimmer Dylan Carter had another close miss at making the podium after finishing fourth in the Men's 50-metre freestyle yesterday at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

But while Carter and judoka Gabriella Wood both missed chances at winning bronze medals, it was a mostly disastrous day for T&T's athletes, with only quarter-miler Asa Guevara having some success by advancing to the semi-finals in the Men's 400-metre event.

Defending champion Michelle-Lee Ahye failed to even advance to the final of the women's 100m, while male sprinters Kion Benjamin, Eric Harrison Jr and Jerod Elcock also all went out at the semi-finals stage of the men's 100m.

And former joint world champions (1979) in netball, the Calypso Girls continued their worst-ever Commonwealth Games run when beaten 70-30 by Malawi yesterday, having lost previously to England (74-22), Uganda (62-28) and New Zealand (80-24).

Back in the pool, after having improved his time in every round, Carter posted his competition-best 22.10 seconds swim in the 50m free final, but just missed out on a podium place once more, following his fourth-placing in the 50m butterfly. Englishmen Benjamin Proud (21.36) and Edward Burras (21.68) won gold and silver, respectively, before their home fans, while Canadian Joshua Liendo Edwards (22.02) edged Carter for the bronze.

Like Carter, judoka Wood was also in contention to win a bronze medal. Wood, 24, was beaten by New Zealander Sydnee Andrews in the Women's judo heavyweight (+78 kg) quarter-final. The 20-year-old Kiwi was given the decision by "Ippon", the highest possible margin of victory after leading 10-0.

Defeat sent Wood into the repechage brackets where she bounced back with a win over 21-year-old Tracy Durhone of Mauritius, also by Ippon, setting up a chance to still clinch bronze, since in judo, the winners of the repechage brackets face the semi-final losers for the two bronze medals.

Beaten quarter-finalist Wood faced beaten semi-finalist, 22-year-old Australian Abigail Paduch, but was defeated by Ippon - the equivalent of a knockout blow - when pinned on her back by her opponent, resulting in a 10-0 defeat.

Michelle-Lee bows out

Back on the track, sprinter Ahye (11.29) gave a flat performance and was only third yesterday to reigning double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah (11.05) in the women's 100m semi-final heat two, with New Zealander Zoe Hobbs (11.15) in second spot. Ahye began slowly and closed late to pass Englishwoman Asha Phillip and Australian Naa Ananag, but had no hope of reeling in the first two.

Ahye still had a chance of advancing as one of two fastest losers to the final. That was until a blistering third semi-final, in which Englishwoman Daryll Neita produced a career-best 10.90 performance. And the first four in that heat, including Nigerian Rosemary Chukwuma (11.05), Bahamian Tynia Gaither (11.17) and Jamaican Natalliah Whyte (11.17), all went through to the final, ending Ahye's reign. Thompson-Herah (10.95) replaced Ahye as Commonwealth women's 100m champion, beating St Lucian Julien Alfred (11.01) and the slow-starting Neita (11.07) in the final.

The TTO men's sprinters all finished down the field in their 100m semi-final rounds. _Elcock (10.38) was sixth in the second semi-_final, won by highly-rated Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (10.02).

Harrison Jr (10.44) was seventh in heat one to defending champion South African Akani Simbine (10.07), while Kion Benjamin (10.43) was eighth behind Englishman Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (10.13) in the third semi-final. Omanyala later won the final when beating Simbine and Sri Lankan Yupun Abeykoon in that order.

Guevara (45.98) was third in the Men's 400m heat two and advanced to the semis but two other T&T quarter-milers were not as successful. Che Lara (47.51) finished sixth in heat one and did not move forward and Kashief King (48.08) also did not make it out of the 400m opening round. Likewise, Nicholas Landeau (1:53.69) was last of seven in heat three of the men's 800m preliminary round and did not advance.

Tough day for Spicer, Chung,

Douglas in t-tennis

In table tennis, there were double Women's singles defeats for Catherine Spicer and Rheann Chung. Spicer went down 4-0 in both her games, to Nandeshwaree Jalim and 16-year-old Anna Hursey of Wales, while Chung fared marginally better, losing 4-0 to England's Charlotte Bardsley but putting up a fight when going under 4-3 to Foteini Meletie (Cyprus).

Spicer's opener against Jalim of Mauritius saw her beaten 12-10, 11-3, 11-7 and 11-7 before also losing against Hursey, who was the youngest person to represent Wales at senior level in any sport. Despite her youth, Hursey was too much for 27-year-old Spicer. The Welsh youngster won comprehensively 11-6, 11-1, 11-3 and 11-1.

Chung, 37, was defeated 11-4, 11-9, 11-7 and 11-8 in her opening match by Bardsley, a 20-year-old English junior national champion. Chung had the early ascendancy and won three of the opening four games before losing the final three games against Meletie, a player 20 years her junior.

The match ended 11-3, 9 -11, 11-8, 11-5, 10-12, 10-12, 7-11, with the 17-year-old teenager winning the final three games.

And in Men's table tennis action, Derron Douglas suffered 4-2 singles defeats to both Mohutasin Ahmed Ridoy (Bangladesh) and Guyanese Christopher Franklin, before also going down 4-0 to Fawad Khawaja of _Pakistan.