T&T's George BovelI III finished fourth in the men's 50m freestyle skins event at the Aspira Swimming Cup at the Milan Harbour Club, Milan, Italy, on Tuesday.
Coming off a disappointing performance at the 52nd International Open Sette Colli Swimming Championship in Rome, Bovell III a four-time Olympian and 2004 Athens Greece bronze medallist was out to get in some much needed speed practice.
However, it seemed as though the T&T ace and two-time World Championship bronze medal winner was still being affected by the virus which hampered his progress in Rome as he clocked a slow 25.61 in the four-man semifinals behind Japan's Shinri Shioura (23.83), Russian Evgeny Lagunov (24.35) and Hungary's Krisztian Takacs (24.38).
With only the top two qualifying for the head-to-head final, both Bovell and Takacs were eliminated while Shioura went on to capture top spot in 23.88 ahead of Lagunov (25.96).
When the event spliced off with the eight-man first round swim-off, the 31-year-old Bovell was third best in 23.43 to trail Russian Oleg Tikhobaev (23.37) and Shioura (23.39), both his team-mates at Italian ADN Swim Project Club.
Takacs was fourth in 23.46 followed by Lagunov (23.54), Italian duo Filippo Magnini (23.77) and Lucio Spadaro (24.15), while Austrian Gottfried Eisenberger was eighth in 24.26.
The second round of eliminators saw Bovell again ending in third spot but with a slower time of 24.03 behind Shioura (23.62) and Takacs (23.91).
Lagunov was fourth in 24.07 to claim the other semifinal spot while Magnini (24.16) and Tikhobaev (24.20) were eliminated after ending fifth and sixth respectively.
Yesterday, Bovell III, who will lead T&T's swimming medal hopes at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada next month, was expected to compete at another Swimming Cup 50m freestyle event in Turin, Italy.