T&T's Olympic bronze medal swimmer George Bovell III made up for the disappointment of missing out on the men's 50m freestyle A final at the Arena Grand Prix which was held at the George F. Haines International Swim Centre in Santa Clara, California by topping the B final on Saturday night.
In the nine-man B final, the 30-year-old Bovell III, swimming out of lane four raced home in 22.71 seconds, well ahead of his 22.91 which won gold last month at the 51st Mel Zaljac Meet held at the University of British Columbia Aquatic Centre, University Boulevard, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Second home in California was Joseph Hales in 23.01 followed by Wyatt Ubellacker (23.19), Santo Condorelli (23.20), Matt Grevers (23.27), the trio of Geoff Cheah (23.31), Seth Stubblefield (23.31) and James Disney-May (23.31) while Tyler Messerschmidt (23.43).
Earlier in the morning heats, Bovell could only get to the wall as the fourth fastest in heat seven from lane six in 23.16 behind A-final qualifiers in former Olympic champion, USA's Anthony Ervin (22.75), Paul Powers (22.97) and Brad Tandy (23.03) for 12th overall and a place in the B-consolation splash.
The top qualifier overall was Brazilian Bruno Fratus in 22.53 and he was also joined in the A-final by Alex Coville (22.90), Adam Brown (22.95), Josh Schneider (22.03), John Murray (23.06) and Matth Ellis (23.07).
And in the final, Fratus was a comfortable winner in 22.03 seconds well ahead of Ervin (22.58), Schneider (22.63) and Ellis, (22.71).
On Friday, Bovell, a World Long Course (50m freestyle) and World Short Course (100m IM) bronze medal winner had a tough start to the meet as he failed to get to the medal swim of the men's 100m freestyle when he ended ninth in heat five from lane nine with a time of 52.14.
Next up for the Bovell, an undefeated former NCAA champion is the French Open in early July and then the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland at the end of July in Glasgow, Scotland, as he builds up to the World Short Course Championships in Qatar in December where he hopes to win the 100m IM.
Last year during the FINA World Cup, Bovell's 13 medal tally included one gold, five silver and seven bronze while the 200m IM Olympic bronze medal winner at Athens 2000 got bronze in the 50m freestyle World Championship Long Course final in Spain last year to add to his bronze medal won in the 100m IM at the 2012 December's 11th FINA World Short Course Championship in Turkey.