T&T’s Olympic bronze medal swimmer George Bovell III just missed out on a medal in the men’s 50m freestyle A-final at the Arena Pro Swim Series when he ended fourth at the Jean K Freeman Aquatic Centre, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, on Friday night.
A two-time World Championship bronze medallist as well, the 32-year-old Bovell got to the wall in 22.44 seconds, behind Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian (21.56), Canada’s Santo Condorelli (22.24) and Brad Tandy (22.27).
The others in the final were Geoff Cheah (22.71), Marcelo Chierighini (22.75), Joao De Lucca (22.82) and Elvin Burrows (22.86).
On Friday morning, in the preliminary heats, Bovell, a former five-time NCAA champion at Auburn University was fourth in the seventh of 13 heats in 22.81 seconds to trail the same trio of Adrian (22.39), Condorelli (22.44) and Tandy (22.66) to the wall. The other finishers in Bovell’s heat were Michael Andrew (22.85), Darian Townsend (23.53), and Carl Weigley (23.82)
The time by Bovell III was the seventh fastest overall as the trio of Chierighini (22.74), Burrows (22.76) and Cheah (22.76) were also faster while De Lucca (22.83) was the final qualifier. Yesterday, Bovell ended his participation at the meet with a slow 59.19 clocking in the men’s 100m freestyle for eight spot and 119th overall.
On Thursday, Bovell III, competing in his first meet since the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, in July where he captured bronze in the men’s 50m freestyle final, was 39th overall in the men’s 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:05.56 minutes for seventh in heat.
Also on Friday night, World Youth Olympic silver and bronze medal swimmer Dylan Carter had to settle for eighth in the men’s 100m backstroke B-final in 56.97 seconds.
Those finishing ahead of the Carter were Paul Le (55.78), record Olympic medal haul winner Michael Phelps (56.12), Daryl Turner (56.13), David Nolan (56.19), Bryce Bohman (56.48), James Wells (56.64) and Yuri Kisil (56.79) In the heats on Friday morning, Carter ended fifth in the seventh of nine men’s 100m backstroke heats to qualify for last night’s B-Final in 13th spot
The winner of the heat was David Plummer, who won in a pool record time of 52.83 to be the top qualifier overall while Gregory Tarasevich (54.33) and Bobby Hurley (55.48) followed in the heat ahead of Bryce Bohman (56.63), and Carter (56.82) while Phelps who has won 22 Olympic medals qualified as the 15th best in 56.97, the same time by Carter in the B-final.
On Thursday night, the 19-year-old Carter, a University of Southern California All-American—who is sitting out of the coming NCAA season in order to prepare for next year’s Olympic Games in Brazil was seventh in the men’s 200m freestyle B-Final in one minute, 52.01 seconds.
Markus Thormeye won the B-final in 1:50.28 ahead of Phelps (1:50.39) and Yuri Kisil (1:51.00)
In Thursday’s morning heats, Carter touched the wall in one minute, 50.84 seconds, an Olympic Qualifying standard time and the ninth best overall, which was ahead of Phelps’ 1:51.34 in his heat. Conor Dwyer won the A-Final in 1;47.88 ahead of Ryan Lochte 1:48.66, and Joao De Lucca (1:49.06).
A silver medal winner in the men’s 50m butterfly at the 2013 FINA World Junior Championship, Carter was expected to conclude his involvement in the meet last night in the Men’s C-Final for the 100m freestyle. This after Carter clocked 51.24 seconds in the 15th of 17 heats behind Marcelo Chierighini (49.08), Ryan Lochte (49.64), Geoff Cheah (50.32) and Bruno Ortiz (50.84).