Top T&T swimmer George Bovell III will be fancied to end his gold medal drought in Dubai, United Arab Emirates when he competes in the second-leg of the 2014 FINA/MASTBANK Swimming World Cup at the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Sports Complex from today.Over the past two years, the 31-year-old Bovell, who recently signed on as an Oasis Water brand ambassador has picked up four medals competing in Dubia, three silver and a bronze.
In 2012, he was second in the men's 100m individual medley in 52.19 seconds to trail Australian Kenneth To (51.43) and he also too sliver in the 50m freestyle in 21.23 behind USA's Anthony Ervin (21.18) while he was 17th in the 50m breaststroke in 29.87.And last year he again got silver in the 50m freestyle in 21.32 well adrift of Russian Vladimir Morozov, and bronze in the 100m IM in 53.38 behind To (51.46) and Morozov (51.76).
However, the T&T swimmer is coming off a gold and silver medal swim at the first-leg of the World Cup at the Hamad Aquatic Centre, Al Aziziyah, Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday and Thursday and will be confident of improving on his performances.First up from 2.32 am (TT time), Bovell will contest the 50m breaststroke from lane two in heat four of five which also comprises home-town competitors, Majid Alhammadi, Mubarak Al Besher and Mohammed Alkatheeri, Singapore's Brilliant Chua, Slovakian Marek Botik, Italian Fabio Scozzoli, USA's Cody Miller, Colombian Jorge Murillo and Sufyan Almalki (Bahrain).
The trio of Andrei Nikolaev (Russia), Giulio Zorzi (South Africa) and Aaron Sinkovic (Serbia) will go in heat three while South African Roland Schoeman, USA's Mihail Alexandrov and Daniel Gyurta of Hungary are in heat five.An Olympic 200m IM and 100m IM World Short Course Championship bronze medallist, Bovell r missed out on a spot in the men's 50m breaststroke final in Qatar after he ended third in heat two of three and, in 27.51 seconds, behind Zorzi (27.20) and Nikolaev (27.21), with the tenth fastest time overall.
Bovell will return to the pool at 4 am (TT time) for the men's 100m individual medley in the fourth and final heat from lane four.Others in the splash are Zeyad Dessouky (Colombia), Ayman Klzie (Syria), Boris Stojanovic (Serbia), Marco Koch (Germany), Lennard Bremer (Australia), Khaled Ismaeel (Burundi) and host swimmers Mohammed Almheiri, Mubarak Al Besher and Omar Alhammadi.Miller, Zorzi, Sinkovic and South African Leith Shankland are in heat two while Scozzoli and American duo, Thomas Shields and Alexandrov compete in heat three.
On Wednesday, last he won swam to a gold medal in the men's 100m IM in 52.80 seconds followed by Shankland (53.77) and Austrian Martin Spitzer (54.77) after he also topped the heats in 54.81.Tomorrow, Bovell a four-time Olympian and five-time NCAA champion, who has won 31 medals at the World Cup; 13 medals (one gold, five silver, seven bronze) last year; 16 medals (nine gold and seven silver) in 2012 and a gold, and silver so far this campaign will line up in his pet event, the 50m freestyle.On Thursday, the Olympic and two-time World Championship bronze medallist, was a joint silver medallist with Poland's Konrad Czerniak in 21.43, and behind USA's Josh Schneider who took gold in 21.07.Following the end of the second-leg of the World Cup tomorrow he will have a break of a close to a month before resuming with the third stop in Hong Kong (September 29-30) followed by Moscow, Russia (October 4-5); Tokyo, Japan (October 28-29) and Singapore (November 1-2).
He will then close off the season with the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m), in Doha from December 3–7, 2014.