Top T&T swimmer and reigning First Citizens Sportsman of the Year, George Bovell III will begin his preparations for his two major events this year, the Pan American Games and FINA World Auqtic Championship, tomorrow in Antwerp, Belgium.
The 31-year-old Bovell, who ended his season early last year and did not compete at the FINA World Short Course Championship last December in Doha, Qatar due to personal reasons, will line up at the Belgian Open Swimming Championship from tomorrow until Sunday, at the Piscine Olympique Wezenberg.
The 2000 Athens Greece, Olympic bronze medal winner in the 200m individual medley, Bovell will first line-up in the men's 50m freestyle breaststroke tomorrow before his pet event on Saturday, the men's 50m freestyle and on Sunday, two more events inclusive of the 50m backstroke and the 100m freestyle as well.
The meet in Belgium will actually be the second one for Bovell since he arrived in Italy in early March when he competed at the Trophetto Citta Milan and got silver in the 50m breaststroke while he was slow and exhausted in the freestyle and backstroke events.According to Bovell, the four-time Sportsman of the Year" winner, the meet was an unimportant one as it was right after travelling from T&T and was just used to see what mistakes he was making and set a start point.
Speaking ahead of the three-day event, Bovell who captured nine medals (three gold, five silver and one bronze) on the FINA/Mastbank Swimming World Cup Circuit last year and won a third straight gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Veracruz, Mexico said the meet was just a chance for him to check up and see what mistakes he might have a tendency to make now and guage his form.
The two-time World Championship medallist added, " I am currently in hard training and don't expect to go under 22 seconds until I get some rest coming into the Pan American Games and World Championships, later this year."
With regards to his competition in Belgium, Bovell said he did not expect a lot of the top name swimmers to be taking part as it was early in the season, with only his new team-mate at Italian-based ADN Swim Project, Francois Heersbrandt, the major threat."Francois is from Belgium and is in some good form, so with the home crowd behind him it should interesting in the 50m freestyle.
Commenting on his new training base in Italy, the T&T swimmer said it was a very professional one which made him wonder what could be achieved if T&T had the same thing at its disposal. Following the meet in Belgium, Bovell is next expected to compete at the Tropheo Citta in Rome, Italy (June 1-3); Sette Colli, also in Rome (June 12-14); Trofeo Rossini (June 19-21); Treviso Swim Cup (June 26-27) and French Open Championshipin Vichy, July 4-5.