Golden Bovell III smashes 200m IM Games records

GEORGE BOVELL III smashed the national, Pan American and Commonwealth records in the 200-metres individual medley, as he cruised to victory in last night’s final at the Juan Pablo Duarte Aquatic Centre, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on the penultimate day of the XIV Pan American Games.

And the 20-year-old Auburn University student took his medal haul to four,   including gold in the 200m freestyle and silver in the 100m free and 100m backstroke. The six-foot-five-inch tall Bovell also equalled the feat of Barbadian cyclist Barry Forde, who also won  two gold medals at the games. Bovell led from the start to blitz his rivals, touching the wall in one minute 59.49 seconds, a clear two-body length ahead of his nearest rival, to also erase his personal best and national record time of 1:59.86. The Pan Am mark stood at 2:00.34. And he also eclipsed  Ian “Thorpedo” Thorpe’s Commonwealth record time of 1:59.66. Fifth-place finisher over the same distance at the recent World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Bovell III had split times of 26.15 (butterfly), 55.77 (backstroke), 1:30.64 (breaststroke). Brazilian Thiago Pereira 2:02.31 got the silver and American Eric Donnelly 2:02.52 bronze. Bovell’s younger brother Nicholas finished third in the “B” final of  the same event clocking 2:06.42. Sharntelle McLean was among the finalists for the women’s 50m freestyle last night, after she swam 26.09 in yesterday morning’s heats, while Linda McEachrane featured in the “B” final, after a time of 27.33 in the heats.