T&T's Olympic bronze medal swimmer, George Bovell III added a bronze to his 2014 FINA/Mastbank Swimming World Cup medal haul when he finished third in the men's 50 metres breaststroke final at the seventh and final leg at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, 7 Stadium Drive, Singapore, yesterday.The 31-year-old double Pan American gold and silver medal winner, swimming in lane six touched the wall in 26.81 seconds behind South African Roland Schoeman (25.86) and Hungary's Daniel Gyurta (26.59).
It was only the second medal for Bovell overall in the history of competing in the breaststroke at the World Cup and second in less than a week, after he took bronze as well in Beijing, China with a time of 26.93, ironically behind Schoeman (26.87) and Gyurta (26.91).The others to finish in yesterday's final were USA's Michael Andrew (27.78), Chun Yan Wong (28.15), Kenneth Lim (28.50), Lukas Ming Menkhoff (28.58) and Christopher Cheong (28.97)
Earlier in the morning heats, Bovell, a former NCAA champion was the top qualifier in the first of three splashes in 28.03 well ahead of Darren Lam (29.33) and Brilliant Chua (30.03) for the fourth fastest time overall.The quartet of Kelvin Wai How Chan (30.53), Seow Ryan (31.65), Aloysius Jun Jie Lian (31.90) and Abdulla Aldhaheri (32.68) were the other finishers in heat one but they failed to advance.Schoeman was the top qualifier overall after he won heat three in 27.06 ahead of Wong (28.44) and Lim (28.64) while Gyurta (27.74), Andrew (27.75), Cheong (29.15) and Menkhoff (29.17) qualified from heat two.
Last year, Bovell was fourth in the 50m breaststroke final in 26.86 seconds to trail Schoeman (25.68), Australian Christian Sprenger (26.24) and Brazilian Felipe Lima (26.84).Bovell also contested the heats of the men's 100m individual medley, the second of three, and placed second in 55.87 behind Hong Kong's Raymond Mak Ho Lan (55.39).However, Ma Ho Land had the eighth and final best qualifying time for the gold medal, while Bovell's clocking was 10th overall to miss qualification for the final.USA's Patrick Mulcare was third in heat two in 56.40 to finish ahead of countryman Corey Okubo (57.01), Malcolm Low (58.38), Malaysia's Yu Gin Tan (59.67), American Alexander Valente (1:00.48), Donavan Lee (1:02.37) and Qatari Yacop Alkhulaifi (1:07.61).
The top eight finishers overall were Russian Sergei Fesikov who won heat three in 53.81 ahead of Great Britain's Liam Tancock (53.95), Canada's Russell Wood (54.88) and Great Britain's Adam Barrett (55.06) while the trio of Spain's Miguel Ortiz (54.53), Great Britain's Coleman Allen (54.62) and Michael Andrew (55.39) qualified from heat one.In the final, Fesikov again dominated to take gold in 52.09 ahead of Ortiz (52.87) and Tancock (53.74) while Andrew (54.61) was fourth and Wood, fifth, in 54.64.Mak Ho Lan was sixth in 54.86 followed by Allen (55.01) and Barrett (55.38).
The T&T swimmer had fond memories of last year's 100m IM final as he got silver in 51.75 behind Russian Vladimir Morozov (51.36) while China's Shun Wang got bronze in 52.96.
Today, Bovell competes in his pet event, the 50m metres freestyle heats against home quartet Hemaan Cabraal, Kevin Ong, Danny Yeo and Ryan Wee as well as USA's Michael Andrew, England's Benjamin Proud, Hong Kong's Raymond Mak Ho Lan, Martin Kristofik of Slovakia and United Arab Emirates' Ali Alkaabi.Bovell also had to settle for silver in the 50m freestyle final in 2013 in 21.20 to trail Morozov (20.28) while USA's Anthony Ervin took bronze (21.26).Following the conclusion of the meet, Bovell will return to his training and continue his preparations for the FINA World Championship scheduled for Doha, Qatar.