T&T's 2004 Olympic Games bronze medal swimmer, George Bovell III has shrugged off the disappointment of missing out on a medal at last weekend's 52nd International Open Sette Colli Swimming Championship and is looking ahead to today's Aspira Swimming Cup in Milan, Italy.On Saturday, the 31-year-old Bovell III, a two-time World Championship bronze medal winner and four-time Olympian missed out on both the A and B final of the men's 50m breaststroke after he ended seventh in the sixth and final heat in 28.63 seconds for the 20th best overall.
A day earlier, Bovell III, who was coming off a gold medal performance in the 50m freestyle at the 21st Tropheo Citta di Roma on June 3 in 22.70 ended sixth in the 50m freestyle B-final in 22.76 seconds.Earlier in the morning session, Bovell was fourth in the seventh of eighth heats when he touched the wall in 22.73 seconds.
However, speaking yesterday after arriving in Milan for the meet, Italian-based T&T swimmer said he did not have much to say about his showing on the weekend.He added: "I was really under the weather, and on the tail end of fighting off a bit of a sickness, but don't worry I will be OK. The racing was good experience anyway."
Looking ahead to today's meet and another event in Turin on Thursday, Bovell said, "No rest for the weary though, I got two meets this week as its all good practice for racing, and I will be fast when it really counts."In addition to Bovell III, Federica Pellegrini, Filippo Magnini, Fabio Scozzoli, Francesco di Lecce and Gregorio Paltrinieri are all entered. Other top European entrants are Hungary's Zsuzsanna Jakabos, Ukraine's Andrey Govorov, Russian duo Evgeny Lagunov and Oleg Tikhobaev, along with Japan's Shinri Shioura
Bovell is also listed to swim at the Trofeo Rossini, June 19-21, Treviso Swim Cup, June 26-27 and French Open Championship (July 4-5) and then head to Canada for the Pan American Games followed by the World Championships in Kazan a month later.