World Championship bronze medallist George Bovell is keen to give back to young swimmers and impart key competition skills, and will be doing so with three swim clinics and a coaches symposium, free of charge from January 9-11.
The title of the event is the George Bovell Dive In Free Swim Clinic.
The 30-year-old swimmer, who claimed the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) 2013 Sports Personality of the Year and Express Individual of the Year awards recently, has teamed up with the Sport Company of T&T (SPORTT) and Atlantic LNG to host the four-day Clinic at various locations across the country. The National Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NP) has also signalled its intentions to assist with sponsorship of the clinic.
Bovells hopes to target athletes ranging from 11 years and older and who have attained a national team level—that is, any national team swimmers from the Goodwill, Carifta, Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships (CISC) and CCCAN teams ages 11-12 and up—to attend the sessions. Each session will build upon the skills and methods discussed and demonstrated from the previous one.
“We aim to focus on all four strokes, turns, dives, underwater dolphin, dry land and race strategy. It will be the greatest initiative of its kind ever in Trinidad and Tobago,” Bovell said of the clinic.
To assist him with the sessions, Bovell has recruited top international swimmers Duje Draganja of Croatia and Milorad Cavic of Serbia.
Draganja is an Olympic silver medallist (2004) and two-time world champion in the 50m freestyle, while Cavic is most famously known for his loss by one hundredth of a second to US swim sensation Michael Phelps in the Men’s 100m butterfly at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
The venues and times of the clinic are expected to be confirmed within a couple of days.