Nigel Si­mon

T&T Olympic bronze medal win­ner, George Bovell III had to set­tle for the bronze medal in the men's 100m freestyle A-Fi­nal at the Long­horn Aquat­ics Elite In­vi­ta­tion­al Swim Meet in Austin Texas, yes­ter­day. The 28-year-old Bovell III, prepar­ing to com­pete at his fourth Olympic Games sped home in 49.84 sec­onds to tri­al USA's Michael Phelps (49.05) and gold medal­list, NCAA cham­pi­on, Jim­my Feigen of Texas who clocked 48.63. The oth­er fin­ish­ers in the fi­nal were Bovell's Club Wolver­ine team-mate, Bob­by Savulich (50.21), Chris Brady (50.35), Gar­rett We­ber-Gale (50.61), Dax Hill (50.77) and Neil Caskey (51.23). Speak­ing af­ter the third place swim, Bovell said it was a pos­i­tive re­sult. "It was my best in-sea­son time of my ca­reer (mean­ing when you are not shaved and ta­pered like at the end of the sea­son) so it was a step in the right di­rec­tion."

Ear­li­er in the morn­ing heats Feigen was al­so the fastest qual­i­fi­er in 49.04 sec­onds, the on­ly man un­der the 50 sec­onds mark. Bovell III, was sec­ond fastest in 50.16 sec­onds, fol­lowed by Phelps (50.22), Hill (50.32), Savulich (50.59), We­ber-Gales (50.65), Caskey (50.89) and Brady (51.14). Last night (Sat­ur­day), Bovell III com­pet­ed in his sec­ond straight fi­nal, the men's 50m freestyle, his pet event for the Lon­don Olmyp­ics af­ter he topped the pre­lim­i­nary heats with the best time of 22.46. Feigen (22.66), Brady (22.96), We­ber-Gale (23.13), Savulich (23.25), Kevin Franken­feld (23.30), Char­lie Moore (23.43) and Madi­son Wen­zler (23.61) were the oth­er qual­i­fiers for last night's 50m freestyle A-fi­nal. To­day, Bovell III, a mul­ti-Pan Amer­i­can Games medal­list will face the starter in the men's 100m back­stroke for which he is ranked as the fifth fastest with a time of 55.65 sec­onds. The top four seeds are Patrick Mur­phy (54.92), John Hig­gins (54.99), Wen­zler (54.99) and Matt Thomp­son (55.63).