T&T's George Bovell III will have his eyes set on a place in the men's 50m breaststroke final carded for tonight when he lines up in the morning heats of the event in the French Open Swimming Championship today at the Stade Aquatique, Vichy Val d'Allier.
It will be the first competitive swim for the 31-year-old Olympic bronze medal winner, since he took a two-week break after competing at the second-leg of the Aspira Swimming Cup in Turin, Italy, in the second week of June, as he continued his preparations for the Pan American Games swimming competition, which begins in Toronto, Canada, from on July 14.
Speaking on the eve of the meet, Bovell III, a five-time Olympic and four-time T&T Sportsman of the Year winner said, "I will be looking to go a low 28 to make the finals and then hopefully improve upon my 27.69 from Belgium."
While not having any of his T&T team-mates, who will be in Canada for the Pan American at the meet, Bovell has seven other elite-level swimmers from his Italian-based AND Swim Project under Andrea Di Nino.
They include Asian record holder, Japan's Shinri Shioura, Russians Evgeny Lagunov and Oleg Tikhobaev, Belgian Francoi Heersbrandt, Ukrainian Andrey Govorov, and Greek swimmer, Kristian Gkolomeev, who has joined ADN for a camp on his way to Worlds in Kazan next month and will be competing in Vichy as part of their group.
Tomorrow, the T&T ace, a two-time World Championship bronze medallist will line up in his pet event, the men's 50m freestyle, in an absolutely stacked field inclusive of world champion Cesar Cielo of Brazil and the Olympic champion, France's Florent Manadou, his former team-mate at Auburn University.
Other top contenders entered in the 50m freestyle are Jeremy Stravius and Frederick Bousquet of France, Shinri Shioura of Japan and Italians Lucca Dotto and Filippo Magnini.
With regards to the star-studded line-up, Bovell a five-time Pan American Games medal winner (two gold, two silver and one bronze) said, "I will have to really put together a good race in the morning to make the finals and then with the energetic atmosphere of the finals go even faster."
He added: "Maybe 22 seconds low would be great as we reduce the workload and hopefully start showing more speed coming into the Pan American Games in ten days."
Apart from Bovell III, a five-time NCCA individual champion, the top quality field in France also features six European Championship gold medalists and three world record holders.