Trinidad and Tobago’s George Bovell III added another silver to his collection yesterday in the men’s 50m freestyle event at the FINA World Cup swim meet in Singapore yesterday, following up on his men’s 100m individual medley (IM) silver from Tuesday.
Bovell touched the time pad in 21.20, his fastest time to date in the eight-day series, behind his Russian arch rival Vladimir Morozov, who clocked a fast 20.78 .
Morozov and Bovell, who won silver and bronze respectively at the FINA World Long Course Swimming Championships in Barcelona back in August, have been the two most consistent freestyle sprinters in the world this year.
USA 2000 Sydney Olympic gold medallist Anthony Ervin claimed bronze in 21.26, while former world record holder, South African Ronald Schoeman was fourth in 21.36. Brazil’s Nicholas Santos (21.40), Poland’s Konrad Czerniak (21.47) Australia’s Tomasso D’Osorgna (21.59) and the Netherlands’ Jasper Mierlo (21.80) rounded out the final placings.
In the morning preliminaries, Bovell was the sixth fastest qualifier, winning heat five in 21.79. Finishing ahead of him were Morozov (21.03), the winner of heat six, Ervin (21.42) , three-time Olympian Schoeman (21.50), D’Osorgna (21.64) and Santos (21.70).
The FINA World Cup is a series of eight international short course (25m pool) meets held between August 7 and 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).