With all the talk about track and field coming up, and nothing to celebrate in local swimming burdened with immature behavior, I thought it would be nice to bring some good news.
George made it in as the last qualifier from the semis last evening, but did so in the fastest ever field. To put some perspective, his time in the semis in London had him 5th going into the final, and that would have left him out of today's final.
Good to see him still improving and repping well.
NBC has coverage from 1:00 today, but those who want to see it live can view
http://www.time4tv.com/2011/09/british-eurosport.htmlI am on the World Juniors Team this month and will hopefully see some more success from a promising group of youngsters on that team.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Bovell-into-Worlds-50--free-final-218179382.htmlTrinidad and Tobago swimming Olympic medallist George Bovell secured his place in the final of the Men’s 50-metre freestyle event yesterday in Barcelona with a 21.74 seconds clocking at the 15th FINA World Long Course Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
The result edged Bovell into today’s final as the eighth and final qualifier after he finished fourth in the first semi-final from lane one at the Palau Sant Jordi pool. This despite the fact that the T&T swim ace had the slowest reaction time of 0.73 seconds of both semi-finals.
Bovell will now be looking to add to the 100m individual medley bronze medal he won at the World Short Course Championships last year in Turkey. He is T&T’s lone Olympic swimming medallist with 100 IM bronze from Greece in 2004.
Yesterday Bovell told the Express that he “did not feel fast” during the heats, but “a little sore and stiff”.
“I can’t express my satisfaction and relief in the way I turned that around tonight,” Bovell said. “I am into the fastest final ever in the premier event in the sport. Everyone knows T&T. I am also very happy about the time as it was my fastest ever, and shows that I am continuing to improve despite taking time off and finding the time to give back and going to Uganda resuming real training only in May.”
Bovell is hoping he can improve his time to aroud 21.5 seconds, which he feels can win him a medal.
Heat One was won by Adrian Natuan of the USA in 21.60 seconds from lane three, while Cesar Filho Cielo (also 21.60) of Brazil—the world record holder in the event with a 21.90 mark back in 2009—was a narrow second in Lane Four.
Third was Roland Schoeman, swimming in lane seven, the South African establishing a new African record with his time of 21.67.
Frenchman Florent Manaudou, though, was the top overall swimmer on the day. The Olympic champion clocked an impressive 21.37 to beat USA’s Ervin Anthony to the wall and win the second semi, the latter clocking 21.42.
Also lining up in the final will be Manaudou’s countryman Frederick Bousquet (21.62) and Russian Vladimir Morozov (21.63), who were third and fourth respectively.
Bovell made it to the semis on the strength of his fourth-place finish in Heat Ten of the preliminaries, achieving his time of 22.09 from Lane Three.
Manaudou was again the best in swimmer of the prelims, with a 21.72 clocking that saw him edge Cielo (21.76) from lane four. Neither Andrii Govorov (Ukraine; 21.96) nor Matthew Abood (Australia; 21.91), who were third and fourth in the prelims, made it to the final