Golden Bovell doubles up in Stockholm

[Aviator]

Looks like Mr.Bovell badly missed his peak. His winning time here would have won him Olympic gold by a country mile in the 50m Freestyle.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/sport/2012-10-14/golden-bovell-doubles-stockholm?qt-realestate_classfieds=0

Golden Bovell doubles up in Stockholm
Published:
Monday, October 15, 2012
Nigel Simon

Text Size:
A delighted George Bovell celebrates his gold medal performance in the men’s 100 metres IM at the FINA/Arena World Cup, in Sweden.

 
T&T’s George Bovell III made it two straight gold medals, as well as two national records at the FINA/Arena Swimming Short Course World Cup, when he won the men’s 50 metres freestyle final in the Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday.
 
Following his win in the men’s 100 metres individual medley on Saturday which ended a run of four straight silver medals, the 29-year-old Bovell out-swam his rivals in the freestyle final in 20.82 seconds, beating his conqueror in United Arab Emirates and Qatar, USA’s Anthony Ervin (20.99) and Australian Matthew Target (21.15 seconds), in that order.
 
Bovell, who was seventh in the event at the London Olympic Games, bettered his 21.06 clocking enroute to silver in Doha, Qatar last week.
 
The other finishers in the final were Australian Kenneth To (21.47), Finland’s Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21.53), Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand (21.74), New Zealand’s Cameron Simpson (21.88) and Holland’s Jasper Van Mierlo (21.99).
 
In the heats, Bovell was the fourth fastest qualifier, after he topped heat six of seven in 21.81 seconds, ahead of Nystrand (21.92), Van Mierlo (21.97), Sweden’s Petter Stymne (22.26), Holland’s Geert Lantink (22.65), Sweeden’s Robin Andreasson (22.75), Finland’s Toni Kurkinen (22.87) and Singapore’s Kai Quan Yeo (22.98).
 
The top qualifiers were Ervin (21.48), To (21.55) and Liukkonen (21.60), the top three swimmers in heat seven, while Simpson (21.89) was fourth in the same heat. Target won heat five in 21.95 seconds.
 
Last week in Doha, Bovell sped home in 21.06 seconds, just behind Ervin (21.02) while Australian Kyle Richardson got bronze in 21.54 seconds.
 
A week earlier, the trio also finished 1-2-3 in Dubai with Ervin winning in 21.18 seconds, followed by Bovell (21.23) and Richardson (21.58).
 
On Saturday, Bovell, swimming out of lane three, in the eight-man final touched the wall in 51.56 seconds to beat Australians, Kenneth To (51.75) and Kyle Richardson (52.78) into second and third spot respectively for his first gold of the World Cup.
 
The time by Bovell, bettered his 51.87 clocked while claiming silver behind To (51.58) last week in Doha, Qatar while South Africa’s Darian Townsend got bronze in 52.76 seconds.
 
Bovell’s swim was also the best performance of the finals’ session, which corresponded to 954 points while To had the second best result of the day, 943 points.
 
The gold medal did not seem possible for Bovell at the half-way point of the race as he found himself in eight spot with a split of 24.56 seconds while To (23.47), Richardson (23.92) and Townsend (23.98) were in the medal positions.
 
However, Bovell, a 2004 Olympic bronze medal winner in the 200m individual medley and the third fastest qualifier for the final turned up the heat in the second-half of the race with a 27 seconds race home to end To’s run of two-straight gold medals.
 
Next up for Bovell is the Moscow, Russia leg of the World Cup October 17-18, followed by Berlin, Germany, October 20-21; Beijing, China, November 2-3; Tokyo, Japan, November 6-7 and Singapore, November 10-11.

 

[Swima]

Just to clarify, this is short course swimming, in a 25m pool. The times are expected to be faster than at the Olympics which is swum in a 50m pool. The comparison over 50 metres is sometimes as much as one second, depending on how much of the turn is utilized by a particular swimmer. George, who is not an underwater specialist does not typically benefit from the turns in a short course event, although, his times would still reflect a faster swim than his long course times.

All in all, still a great swim, as this would have put him on the podium in Dubai two years ago. The short course season ends with Worlds in Istanbul in December, so we may get a world class swimming medal yet this year.

 


BTW, the 100IM time was even more impressive. Remember, George was an IM swimmer first, before the injury. Turns out he can still do enough breastroke to train for the 100IM.

[Peong]

Congrats, fly de flag!

[D.H.W]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/P0aSv_oyi3A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/P0aSv_oyi3A</a>

[Deeks]

Congrats to GB. Fight on brother.

[Aviator]

Thanks for the clarification @ SWIMA, but George would have had to use that full one second differential to match his time from London(21.82). Even a 0.75 differential would have been enough to land him bronze. which sounds reasonable in light of his weaknesses you have pointed out.

[Dutty]

Swima..clear someting up for mih

What kinda injury did that guy have that would make him drop the 100, but still have the strength and intensity to even qualify for another olympics....and still kick ass in the prelims and semis?

[sinned]

Swima..clear someting up for mih

What kinda injury did that guy have that would make him drop the 100, but still have the strength and intensity to even qualify for another olympics....and still kick ass in the prelims and semis?

I believe his knee injury forced him to drop the 200IM (and subsequently all IMs). He got injured in 2005 I believe playing paintball.

Regarding his peaking late - not unexpected after his car accident delayed his training before the Olympics. It's a shame because without the car accident injury, he'd have had plenty of time to train and peak in the Olympics. But as Swima said, it's short course (25m pool) so it's hard to extrapolate the times.

[100% Barataria]

Congrats Georgie!  But wait, is de Tanzania flag they have up nex to George name?

[sinned]

Good read in the Express where Bovell talks about his current form:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/REAPING_REWARDS-175720251.html