Bovell back on World Cup podium in 100m IM
Trinidad and Tobago’s George Bovell won silver yesterday in the 100-metre individual medley event, and also finished fourth in the 50m breaststroke at the FINA World Cup swim meet, now taking place in Singapore.
The World Cups are a series of eight international short course (25m pool) swim meets held between August 7-November 14. World Cups have already taken place in Eindhoven, Berlin, Moscow, Dubai, Doha and now Singapore. The series ends with the final World Cups in Tokyo, Japan (November 9-10) and Beijing, China (November 13-14).
Bovell’s silver came when second in the 100m IM behind Russian Vladimir Morozov, who clocked 51.36 as he jumped out to a lead and never looked back.
Bovell trailed him with a second-place 51.75 as the top two sprint medley stars in the world thus far this year put on a show. Morozov (51.13) and Bovell (51.15) have both been much faster earlier this year on the circuit, but still had enough to both clear 52 seconds yet again. China’s Wang Shun cracked the top ten with a third-place 52.96.
That moved him to ninth in the world rankings this year. Australia’s Mitch Larkin (52.98), Australia’s Tommaso D’Orsogna (53.87), Brazil’s Henrique Rodrigues (54.71), China’s Ye Zhengchao (55.43) and Singapore’s Zheng Wen Quah (55.77) completed the top eight in the finale.
Three-time Olympian Roland Schoeman won the men’s 50m breastroke with a 25.68 finish. Australia’s Christian Sprenger finished second in 26.24 and Brazil’s Felipe Lima touched third in 26.84. Bovell only marginally missed bronze, when finishing just behind the Brazilian in 26.86. Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta (27.03), Hendrik Feldwehr (27.11) and Japan’s Kazuki Kohinata (28.01) also competed in the final.
The high point of the opening day of the Singapore meet was a record swim by South African swim sensation Chad Le Clos, who has set a new world mark in the 200m butterfly (short-course). The 21-year-old Olympic champion clocked one minute, 48.56 seconds at the Singapore Sports School pool to rewrite his own mark of 1:49.04 clocked in August.
The World Cup also saw Jamaica’s Alia Atkinson cruise home with a 100m breastroke gold in a winning time of 1:03.48. She’s been much faster this year with a Jamaican-record, second-ranked time of 1:02.91 from the Dubai stop of the tour, but didn’t need to expend that much energy against a sparse field.