T&T's George Bovell won his sixth bronze medal and fourth in five starts, after he placed third in the men's 100m individual medley on the opening day of the fifth-leg of the FINA World Cup at the Hamad Aquatic Centre, Doha, Qatar, yesterday.
The 30-year-old Michigan-based Bovell, who got silver at the same venue last year, was fourth at the half-way stage, trailing Kenneth To, France's Florent Manaudou and Russian Vladimir Morozov.
However, a strong second-half swim saw Bovell power into the wall in third with a 51.87 clocking. To managed to hang on to win in 51.19 while Morozov got silver in 51.49.
The trio of To (51.64), Morozov (51.76) and Bovell (52.36) also took the top three podium placings on Thursday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Bovell, the reigning World Long Course Championship 50m freestyle bronze medal holder, has now won 24 medals from 25 finals with his eight medals (one gold, one silver and six bronze) so far in nine finals this season adding to his 16 medals won last year (nine gold and seven silver) during the FINA/ARENA Swimming World Cup series.
Manaudou had to settle for fourth in 52.16 ahead of Great Britain's Liam Tancock (54.12), Israel's Gal Nevo (54.22, Uzbekistan's Aleksey Derlyugov (54.44) and Hong Kong's Geoffrey Cheah (54.78).
In the morning session, Bovell was the top qualifier overall when he won the second of three heats in 54.20 seconds well ahead of Uzbekistan's Aleksey Derlyugov (54.73) and Israel's Gal Nevo (54.79) who qualified sixth and seventh respectively for the final.
The other finishers in the heat were Hong Kong's Raymond Mak (55.09), Swizterland's Lukas Raeuftlin (56.32), Singapore's Benedict Boon (1:01.87), his countryman Sunil Kwang (1:02.28) and Burundi's Sufyan Al Malki(1:04.87).
To won heat one in 54.24 as the second fastest qualifier for the gold medal splash ahead of Manaudou (54.46) while Morozov won heat three in 54.59 followed by Tancock (54.68) and Cheah (54.98).
Today, Bovell, a four-time Olympian returns to the pool in the fourth of five men's 50m freestyle heats in which he has been assigned lane 4 with Japan's Kenta Ito and Shinri Shioura at his side as he attempts to improve on a silver won last year.
The others in the heat are Uzbekistan's Islam Aslanov Cheah, France's Glacomo Perez and Fabien Gilot, Kuwait's Mohammed Madouh and Hong Kong duo, Mak and Kol Kel Kong.
The trio of USA's Anthony Ervin, South African Roland Schoeman and Italian Luca Dotta are in heat three while Tancock, Poland's Konrad Czerniak, France's Frederick Bousquet and Morozov compete in heat five.
On Friday in Dubai, Bovell ended a streak of three bronze medals on the trot at the World Cup with silver in the men's 50m freestyle in 21.32 seconds behind Morozov (20.66) while USA's Anthony Ervin was a close third, in 21.34 seconds.
He began the World Cup with gold in the 100m IM in a new national record mark in Holland in August, when he touched the wall in 51.15 seconds while he also took bronze in the 50m freestyle final after he clocked 21 seconds.
This was followed by bronze in the 100m IM in Berlin a week later and fourth in the 50m freestyle to halt his medal winning streak at the World Cup at 19 medals from 19 finals before he resumed with a double bronze in Russia last weekend after almost a two-month break, and then bronze and silver in Dubai.
At the conclusion of the meet today, he will have a 13-day break before he next competes in Singapore (November 5-6) followed by Tokyo, Japan (November 9-10) and Beijing, China, (November 13-14).
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