Top local swimmer, George Bovell had his FINA Short Course World Cup medal streak halted at 19 medals from 19 finals when he placed fourth in his pet event, the men's 50m freestyle final on the second and final day of competition at the Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europa-Sportpark (SSE) Pool, Berlin, Germany yesterday.
A silver medal winner in the same event at the same venue in 20.97 seconds last year, the 30-year-old Bovell was hoping to improve on Saturday's 100m individual medley bronze finish.
However, swimming out of lane seven in the eight-man final, the Michigan-based T&T swimmer could only get to the wall in a time of 21.19 seconds to trail World and Championship record holder, South African, Roland Schoeman (20.86), Russian Vladimir Morozov (21.00) and Germany's Steffen Deibler (21.04).
Others in the finals were Australian Matthew Abood (21.22), Finland's Ari-Pekka Liukkonen (21.23), Aussie James Magnussen (21.39) and Ukraine's Andrii Govorov (21.45).
In the morning session Bovell, competing in the fourth of fifth heats won in 21.55 ahead of Liukkonen (21.61) and Holland's Jasper Van Mierlo (22.01) to be the sixth fastest qualifier overall.
Also in the heat were Switzerland's Erik Van Dooren (22.29), Canada's Joel Greenshields (22.78), Japan's Kosuke Kitajima (22.82), Colombian Tom Siara (22.86) and Slovakian Roman Kucik (22.90).
On Saturday, Bovell took bronze in the 100m IM in 51.65 seconds behind Morozov (51.13) and Australian Kenneth To in 51.21.
In the heats, Bovell III who was seeking a second straight gold in the 100m IM won the third and final heat in 52.90 ahead of Germany Dimitri Colupaev (53.15) and Markus Deibler (53.24).
On Wednesday, Bovell, a four-time Olympian began the World Cup with gold in the 100m individual medley in a new national record mark at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium Eindhoven, Holland when he touched the wall in 51.15 seconds.
The time bettered his 51.20 clocking set in winning gold on October 20 last year in Berlin, Germany, the fifth stop of the 2012 World Cup. Second home in the final was his World Cup rival To in 51.31 while Morozov, got bronze in 51.50.
Bovell also competed in the men's 50m breaststroke but missed out on a spot in the gold medal splash by one spot after he was fifth in the second and final heat in 27.23 to be the ninth fastest in the field.
A day later he got bronze in the men's 50m freestyle final after he clocked 21 seconds flat out of lane six, to trail Russian World Long Course 50m freestyle silver medal winner, Morozov (20.66), and World Long Course 100m freestyle champion, Magnussen (20.98), who also won the 100m freestyle (45.60) in Holland on Wednesday.
Over the past ten days Bovell, an Athens Olympic 2004 bronze winner in the 200m IM has also captured a bronze in a star-studded men's 50m freestyle final in a national record mark of 21.51 at the FINA Long Course World Championship at the Palau Sant Jordi Swimming and Synchronized Arena, Barcelona, Spain behind Brazilian Cesar Cielo (21.32) and Morozov (21.47)
Last year, he rebounded from a medal-less London 2012 Olympic Games–his fourth Olympics–where he was seventh in the men's 50m freestyle final with awesome performances in the World Cup to claim 16 medals, seven gold and nine silver for second overall "Most Outstanding Men's Swimmer".
Bovell is expected to arrive home today for a well deserved rest before resuming his training for the six remaining legs of the World in Moscow, Russia (October 12-13); Dubai, United Arab Emirates (October 17-18); Doha, Qatar (October 20-21); Singapore (November 5-6)' Tokyo, Japan (November 9-10) and Beijing, China, (November 13-14).
