Story by: Nigel Simon 
T&T swimmer, George Bovell III seemed to bothered by his injured left toe when he placed 11th in the men’s 50m freestyle at the seventh Swim Cup Eindhoven, Netherlands on Sunday. The 27-year-old Bovell III, competing in the morning preliminaries in the 11th and final heat touched the wall in 23.12 seconds for fourth spot behind Sweden’s Petter Stymne (22.55), Javier Noreiga (22.85) and Jason Dunford (22.91).
However, another Swede, Stefan Nystrand (22.21) and Sergey Fesikov (22.46), Jasper Aerents (22.73), Alexandre Agostinho (22.81) and Sebastien Verschuren (22.82) all went faster than Bovell in the previous heats to qualify for the finals with Jasper Van Mierlo (23.07) and Petter Timmers (23.08) the two reserves ahead of Bovell III.
In the final, Nystrand (22.01), Fesikov (22.35) and Stymne (22.58) were the top three finishers again.
Fourth was Noreiga (22.65) followed by Dunford (22.71) Aerents and Verschuren, both with 22.79 timing and Agostinho (22.93). Bovell III’s participation on Sunday at the four-day meet organised by the Eiffel Swimmers was in doubt after he split his hallux (big toe) prior to his departure from Madrid, Spain where he won gold in the 50 metres freestyle (22.38 secs) at the Spanish Spring Nationals Swimming Meet.
However, with the help of medical personnel in Holland the Athens Greece Olympics, Olympic bronze medal swimmer was able to compete.
In the 100m freestyle final, Verschuren, fell just shy of the Dutch cut for Shanghai, when he won gold in 49.04 while Fesikov clocked (49.34) and Nystrand (49.35) followed by Joost Reijns, the last man inside 50sec, on 49.44. The meet in Holland was a qualification for the World Championships to be held in Shanghai in July. Bovell is next listed to compete at a meet in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday and Sunday, but due to the injury his involvement is now uncertain.