Nigel Si­mon

With the Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean (CAC) Games less than two months away, T&T Olympic bronze medal swim­mer, George Bovell III said he is tar­get­ing do­ing faster times.

Bovell III was speak­ing fol­low­ing his per­for­mances at the four-day Char­lotte Ul­tra Swim Grand Prix which end­ed at the Meck­len­burg Coun­ty Aquat­ic Cen­tre on Sun­day night. The 26-year-old Bovell III picked up a bronze medal in the 50 me­tres freestyle in 22.61 sec­onds on Sat­ur­day and a day lat­er he placed sev­enth in the 100m freestyle in 50.76. Speak­ing af­ter the meet on Sun­day, the top T&T swim­mer said he hoped to im­prove his times in both the 50 and 100 me­tres freestyle events, but that did not hap­pen. "Un­for­tu­nate­ly you can't be your fastest when you are work­ing your hard­est. You just get bro­ken down, sore, heavy and with­out that easy speed.

"The speed comes when you rest lat­er on, but in or­der to get the speed at the end of the sea­son you have to grind it out and put in the work. This meet came in the mid­dle of a hard train­ing pe­ri­od for me." With re­gards to his swim in the 50 me­tres freestyle, Bovell III said, "I was on track to be very fast but re­al­ly slowed up in the last ten me­tres. My stroke rate dropped con­sid­er­ably, and my arms were a lit­tle wild. I re­mem­ber feel­ing as if I was swim­ming in mud for those last few strokes. In the warm-up, I just didn't have that spring that I feel when I know I am fast. "I al­so no­ticed some is­sues de­vel­op­ing with my left arm re­cov­ery. I be­lieve this to be be­cause of a tem­po­rary lack of flex­i­bil­i­ty due to be­ing stiff. All things con­sid­ered, it was a learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence, and I in­tend to get down to the low 22's next month in Eu­rope.

"I fol­lowed this up with a 50.7 in the 100 freestyle the next evening to come sev­enth in the fi­nals. "It's ok for where I am right now in my sea­son. I think next time I race this event with a lit­tle more rest I need to get down be­low 50 sec­onds."

He will next com­pete at the Mare Nos­trum Se­ries (Barcelona, Canet and Mona­co) from June 5-13 fol­lowed by the Sprint Cup (June 20) and Paris Open (June 25-27). Bovell, will then head to Mayaguez, Puer­to Ri­co to rep­re­sent T&T at the CAC Games from Ju­ly 18-24. In Puer­to Ri­co, he is ex­pect­ed to swim the back­stroke events in ad­di­tion to his pet event, the freestyle.