Regrouping for London
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com By Mark Pouchet
October 30, 2010
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Anil Roberts says he is working on peaking his protege George Bovell for a gold medal shot in the 50m free at the London 2012 Olympics.
In September, Roberts resumed coaching duties of this country's Athens 2004 200m IM bronze medallist after Bovell made the request.
"He's been so great for the country and it's a joy to coach him or even interact with him, the knowledge he has for swimming. So when he made the decision to switch and come back home and train and he asked me, even though he was worried if I'd have time or not, I told him if it is anything I'll make time for you if it's four o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock at night," Roberts told the Express last week.
The 26-year-old Bovell had expressed displeasure with his sub-par performances earlier this year and decided to quit the Auburn Aquatics club in the United States, where he trained with Brazilian Olympic champion Cesar Cielo and French Olympian and former world record-holder for the 50m freestyle Frederick
Bousquets.
Roberts said he had already started some technical changes to improve to Bovell's racing.
"When I first started he wanted to go to the World Short Course Championships in Dubai in mid December and it didn't look good, his technique had gone, he was a little bit out of shape. But being the consummate professional, as soon as we started doing technique and so on, he had a dramatic response and adaptation and so now he is looking quite good, it looks like he will be able to go to Dubai and give a good account of himself," Roberts said.
But the former radio/tv show host says the Dubai competition is just part of achieving the main goal-winning an Olympic medal again.
"So he is starting to look good but all of this is just the beginning for London 2012 where he'll go (in) the 50 and 100 freestyle.
"Beijing was quite good where he went 48.8, but I think he has a 48.04 in him.
We'd like to get that and while that won't win an Olympic medal, it should place him in the final and maybe fourth or fifth and that will set up the 50m freestyle where it is my opinion he has the potential to win gold," said Roberts.
Roberts added the world of sprint freestyle is "quite open" and with the world governing body for aquatic sports FINA banning of the high-tech suits, technically sound swimmers like Bovell are starting to come back into the top of the world rankings.
Roberts said that even though Bovell was the fourth fastest in the world last year in the 50m free, he is an experienced novice because the other top ten sprinters have been racing this event since they were 15 to 16 years old.
Asked what was responsible for Bovell's poor performances over the last two years, Roberts said his coaches in that period did not understand how to peak him.
"He (George) was the man who did the work, the man who listens to the coach who did everything....They (Bovell's previous coaches) were giving him the same two to three-week taper.
"Even though he had done all the mileage, he could have gone up to five weeks and yes, some people will say that is madness because the science says you can't do that. However the science is not specific on tapering. You have to understand the individual inside out. He is a very confident swimmer, his muscle tone is good, he does not put on weight when he rests.
"When he works hard, you can take the risk of resting him much longer and I think they never did that," Roberts said.
The good thing, Roberts said, is Bovell has the work under his belt. Six weeks since resuming training, he is in a better frame of mind. But coach Roberts believed he and his charge had one major obstacle.
"I don't cry about facilities once you have water and you have a pool, you are good. But...the real weakness and challenge is getting him world class competition on a regular basis.
"What he'll have to do is fly out quite a lot.... He is looking at Canada and England to get those swims in. But going into next year—May, June, July—he will have to choose his competitions carefully, do them in 'grap' as we say...Swim six races in seven days and come back.
"That is going to be a bit of a challenge but we'll put our heads together and get it done and every race he can get we have to make sure he learns something."