T&T's four-time Olympic swimmer, George Bovell III, earned his second silver medal in two days, this time in the men's 50 metres freestyle final, his pet event in a personal best, at the FINA/Arena Swimming Short Course World Cup which ended at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex, Swimming Pool, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, yesterday. The 29-year-old, who was seventh in the same event in the London Olympic Games final on August 3 in 21.82, touched the wall in Dubai in a much faster time of 21.23 seconds, a personal best swimming out of lane five for silver behind USA's Olympic champion Anthony Ervin (21.18), who swam from lane four while Kyle Richardson of Australia took bronze in 21.58 in lane seven.
"I am very pleased with my swim tonight (yesterday). Wonderful to see Trinbago's flag being raised!" said Bovell. "It's actually my career-best time." His previous best was 21.29. Ervin (21.07) and Bovell (21.62) were also the top two fastest swimmers overall from the eight contested heats. "Anthony swam a great race and he is a very worthy adversary. Both him and Roland were in the finals with me in London. As this is the first racing since the Games, and that it is now short course as opposed to the long course 50m pool of the Olympics, things take a little getting used to," Bovell shared. Minister of Sport and Bovell's coach Anil Roberts shared that he was pleased about the performances against high level competition.
"George is one of the hardest working athletes I know. He would have been disappointed by not medalling in London but he is not done swimming yet. He can still swim fast times and reaching a personal best in the 50m proves he is committed to doing better at his sport, every time he enters the pool. No-one should ever doubt his will to win." The other finishers in the final were South African Roland Schoeman (21.65), New Zealand's Cameron Simpson (21.69), Finland's Ari Pekka Livkkonen (21.77), Ukraine's Andrii Govorov (21.93) and Kenyan, Jason Dunford (22.09). Earlier in the day, competing in the seventh of eighth heats, Bovell was the top swimmer in 21.62 seconds followed by Simpson (21.78), Richardson (22.07) and Dunford (22.13), who all qualified for the finals.
Ervin won the eighth and final heat ahead of Schoeman (21.79) while Hungary's Krisztian Takacs (22.25) and South African Gerhard Zanbergh (22.39), were third and fourth respectively for tenth and 11th fastest overall to miss a chance at a medal while the two other finalists, Govorov (21.86) and Livkkonen (22.16) were the top two swimmers in heat seven. The top T&T swimmer also competed in the men's 50 metres backstroke yesterday but could only manage a fifth place in heat eight of eight in a time of 25.24 seconds, only good for 12th overall. In the 50m backstroke final, Russian Stanislav Donets won gold in 23.47 ahead of Australians, Robert Hurley (23.61) and Delaney (23.77) while Meeuw was fourth in 24.30. The Qatar leg (Doha) of the FINA World Cup will be held at the Hamad Aquatic Centre, on Saturday and Sunday, followed by Stockholm, Sweden (October 13-14); Moscow, Russia October 17-18; Berlin, Germany, October 20-21; Beijing, China (November 2-3); Tokyo, Japan (November 6-7) and Singapore, November 10-11.