T&T's George Bovell III, buoyed by his bronze medal swim in the men's 100 metres individual medley final at the just concluded 11th FINA World Short Course Swimming Championship at the Sinan Erdem Arena, Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, will have his eyes set on double gold when he competes at the sixth International Vladimir Salnikov Cup Swimming Tournament. This will be in St Petersburg, Russia, starting tomorrow and concluding on Saturday.
On Bovell III's last visit to Russia he earned silver in the 100m IM (51.81) on October 17, and gold in the 50m freestyle a day later (20.90) during the fourth leg of the ARENA/FINA World Cup Short Cup series.
Tomorrow at 4.07 am (TT time), the 29-year-old Bovell III will start as firm favourite to take gold in the men's 100m individual medley splash after being listed as the top ranked of 33 competitors for the preliminary heats with a 51.20 seconds timing, his national record mark set in Berlin, Germany, on October 20 during the fifth of the eight-leg ARENA/FINA World Cup.
The second-ranked swimmer for the 100m IM ahead of the heats is Russian Vladimir Morozov (51.89) followed by Hungary's Laszlo Cseh (53.11), Russian, Dmitry Zhilin (53.23), South African Gerhard Zandberg (53.39) and Russia's Viacheslav Prudnikov (53.92)
With his main rivals USA's Ryan Lochte and Australian Kenneth To-the two swimmers he trailed to the wall in Turkey-not competing, the 29-year-old Bovell is fancied for the gold medal but will need to pay close attention to Morozov, Cseh and Zandberg in the final from 10.31 am (TT time).
Sunday last in Turkey, Bovell, a four-time Olympian and bronze medal winner, touched the wall in 51.66 for bronze, this country's first ever medal at a FINA?Swimming World Championship.
Lochte, who set a new Championship and World Record in the semifinals and was the winner of the 200m IM also in world record time, completed the double when he raced home in 51.21 seconds in the final ahead of To (51.38).
On Saturday, Bovell, who is ranked second for the men's 50 metres freestyle heats with a 20.92 clocking behind World Short Course champion, and host country swimmer Morozov (20.82), will be in action from 3.37 am (TT time) with the final set for 9.40 am (TT time).
The other top seeds in the heat are Russians Sergei Fesikov (20.95) and Andrey Grechin (21.44), Ukraine's Andrii Govorov (21.53), South Africa's Roland Schoeman (21.55) as well as another Russian Evgeny Lagunov (21.64) among the 57 registered swimmers.
Friday in Turkey, Bovell III missed out on a medal by 0.04 seconds when he raced home in 21.03 seconds for fourth spot in the men's 50m freestyle final, well short of his 20.82 national record sat during the Short Course World Cup in Sweden on October 14.
Morozov swam to gold in 20.55 seconds to beat Olympic champion France's Florent Manaudou (20.88) and USA's Anthony Ervin (20.99)-Bovell's main rival in the event.