Jamaican swimmer Keanan Dols won the bronze medal in the 200-meter backstroke at the International Swim Coaches Association (ISCA) International Senior Cup competition held in St. Petersburg, Florida, on March 25, 2021. Dols, 22, indicated the day before the meet that he is looking to compete at the Tokyo Olympics later in 2021, having had two good finishes in the 200-meter individual medley. Dols competed for the Gator Swim Club and won the medal with a time of 2:04.63, beating Puerto Rico’s Ziyad Saleem by just 0.03 seconds. The gold medal was won by Yeziel Morales, four-time World Championship holder of Puerto Rico who achieved the victory with 2:01.13. Eltham Beach of the University of Florida took second place with 2:02.75.
In the preliminary round of the ISCA International Senior Cup, Dols took nearly two seconds off his prior personal best to qualify for the Championship final by ranking seventh with 1:46.77. This was the fastest time attained by a Jamaican in this race format. His previous time was 1:48.69, which he set during heats at the Ivy League Championships representing the University of Pennsylvania.
Dols placed fifth in the night’s final with 2:03.74, just over his national record of 2:03.66 and the Tokyo Olympic B standard of 2:03.26. He set the new national record in 2018 in the “A” finals of the men’s 200-meter individual medley at the 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia. At age 19, he broke the long-time national record set by Andrew Phillips at the1984 Olympics. Dols actually broke that record twice on the same day, swimming 2:04.00 minutes in the morning’s qualifying meet.
While Dols took fifth place at the ISCA meet and was disappointed at not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics in the 200-meter individual medley event, he said there are still other competitions he can try in order to make the cut for the 2021 Summer Games.
The gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley went to Ryan Lochte of the United States with a time of 1:59.72. Caeleb Dressel took the silver medal with 2:00.50, while Grant Sanders came in third with 2:02.69.
